‘I Just Swallowed Some Mask Here!’ And Other Absurd Moments From Biden Spox Jen Psaki’s Briefings This Week

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had a shorter work week than usual, briefing-wise, but that didn’t stop reporters from trying to make things “interesting” by, among other things, quoting “lots of Americans” who turned out to be one Republican dude who’s mad about immigration.

Psaki only had three briefings this week due to President Joe Biden’s travel schedule, but that was more than enough time for a few absurd moments, and a few other notable ones — and maybe even a #PsakiBomb or two. That’s the term coined by Psaki Pstans for the politely cutting way the press secretary dispenses with bad faith or false questions.

She dropped several rounds of ordnance on the subject of the unaccompanied migrants who are surging at the border. After reporters relentlessly tried to get her to call it a “crisis” for two weeks, one reporter made a bold play to get her to call it a “disaster.”

Psaki politely declined the offer, and gave the report faint praise for his choice of a mask:

Psaki did experience a momentary lapse this week in which she offhandedly referred to the migrant surge as a “crisis,” but corrected herself minutes later.

Later in the week, Psaki was more pointed when another reporter asked if there’s a “limit” to the number of children the U.S. will accept.

Q So is there a limit or a cap to the number of unaccompanied minors that are going to be allowed into the U.S.?

MS. PSAKI: A limit or a cap?

Q Or cap.

MS. PSAKI: So should we send some kids, who are 10, back at a certain point? Is that what you’re asking me?

Q I’m not setting the policy here; I’m just asking you what the Biden administration’s policy is. Is there a limit to the number of children that will be allowed in? I mean, the numbers we’re hearing now: 565 on average, every day. I’m just curious what the — what the endgame is here. How many, ultimately, would be allowed in?

MS. PSAKI: Well, I think we’re — where we are is we’re focused on some of the very specific numbers. So, when we came into office, there existed about 13,000 permanent beds in HHS ORR permanent and influx shelter system facilities during the last administration. Thousands of these beds — approximately half — were taken offline due to COVID. Staffing was also reduced to put it on par with the new reduced capacity. This was sufficient for the prior administration — so this is how we got here — because they were expelling children, in addition to families and single adults.

We decided, as you all know, that we will be more humane about how we approach this. There wasn’t operational capacity built. The prior administration also did not consider that there were other mitigation efforts like masking, improved ventilation, cohorting, and other measures that would contain the spread of COVID. There’s now revised CDC guidance, which means there’s greater capacity in these facilities where we can expedite children — expedite getting children into them. There are — we are taking steps to ensure that when kids come to the border, we look and see if they have a phone number in their pocket so we can call the family member and get them to those family members as quickly as possible.

These are the steps that we’re taking at this point in time. Our policy continues to be: We’re not going to send a 10-year-old back across the border. That was the policy of the last administration. That’s not our policy here.

But it was the return of “a lot of Americans” that takes the prize, as yet another reporter tried to shop a Republican talking point as the popular view of the people. It’s a gambit that was tried once before, when the Americans turned out to be Trump, and in this case, the “a lot of Americans” appear to be Kevin McCarthy, who at that moment was holding a photo op at the border.

Q [T]here are a lot of Americans who see him going to take these trips this week to promote this popular law and think, “Okay, but why can’t he take time to go down to the border?” I know you said, last week, when — you’ve said it before: It takes a lot of resources to get him there. It’s taking a lot of resources to get him to Pennsylvania and Georgia this week; the Vice President out west. Why not take the time to schedule something to go there as well?

MS. PSAKI: Well, I would say that his focus is on developing solutions — pushing his team, encouraging his team to develop solutions that will expedite processing at the border, that will open more facilities, that will ensure kids are treated with humanity and also treated safely. And that’s his focus. And so that’s where he’s putting his efforts on immigration.

That same reporter also tried this a few weeks ago by claiming that “Democrats” were saying a thing, and when Psaki asked “Who — are there any specific Democrats you want to call out?”, could provide none.

There was another bizarre moment this week when a reporter asked Psaki what President Biden would say to “Americans who have ethical concerns about taking some of those vaccines — that it might violate their conscience?”

A perplexed Psaki tilted her head and said “Give me a little more information. Why would it violate their conscience?”

Turns out it was about abortion — a false narrative about abortion, to boot.

There were also a few lighter moments that went unnoticed this week, like one reporter who experienced a Covid-era mishap, following up a cough by saying “Sorry, I just swallowed some mask here.”

“It’s okay. We’ve all been there,” Psaki said.

And one of the best moments of the week came from Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, who opened up her guest spot Thursday by getting the reporters in line.

Sevretary Fudge took to the podium, thanked Psaki, and said “Good afternoon.”

After a long pause and a hand to her ear, Fudge repeated, more forcefully, “Good afternoon!”

“Good afternoon!” the reporters responded.

“Oh, thank you,” Fudge said to laughter. “I was wondering if I was in this room by myself.”

Here’s hoping next week finds Secretary Fudge making them do the New Cupid Shuffle.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.