“The pandemic is over,” President Biden declared last week as he toured the Detroit Auto Show.
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Biden has a long history of gaffes, statements that misfire or land badly. Most are inconsequential. This wasn’t.First, public health. For months, Biden and his aides have struggled to persuade Americans to get vaccinated against COVID — and to get, especially if they are 60 or older. The results have been disappointing: Less than half the eligible population has accepted even a single booster.
Biden’s aides spent much of last week trying to explain. “Look at his whole statement,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said. “The sentence after ‘the pandemic is over’ is ‘we have a lot of work to do.’” Biden and his aides have asked Congress for $22.5 billion to pay for vaccines, testing and therapeutic drugs. The request was already stalled in the Senate; the president’s statement made its prospects even dimmer.Joe Biden loves to be the bearer of good news, especially with an election approaching.
To be fair, though, Biden has often veered into cockeyed optimism whether an election was near or not.