Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary, is the highest-ranking Biden administration official to test positive for COVID-19.
On Sunday, the 42-year-old press secretary, who is properly vaccinated, announced the positive test result, Fox News reported.
"I made the choice not to travel on the foreign trip with the President on Wednesday, in collaboration with senior leadership at the White House and the medical team, owing to a family issue, which was members of my home testing positive for COVID-19," she stated.
“Since then, I have quarantined and tested negative (via PCR) for COVID on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,” the press secretary said. “However, today, I tested positive for COVID. While I have not had close contact in person with the President or senior members of the White House staff since Wednesday — and tested negative for four days after that last contact — I am disclosing today’s positive test out of an abundance of transparency.
“I last saw the President on Tuesday, when we sat outside more than six-feet apart, and wore masks,” she said. “Thanks to the vaccine, I have only experienced mild symptoms which has enabled me to continue working from home. I will plan to return to work in person at the conclusion of the ten day quarantine following a negative rapid test, which is an additional White House requirement, beyond CDC guidance, taken out of an abundance of caution.”
Last Monday, a day before his last encounter with Psaki, President Biden coughed into his hand following a speech in New Jersey and proceeded to use it to shake hands with members of the public, all while not wearing a mask.
Did Biden cough in his hand and then proceed to shake hands with people? pic.twitter.com/NxjYka2eKt
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 25, 2021
Psaki’s diagnosis also comes less than two weeks after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tested positive for COVID-19 just days following an event with the president.
On Oct. 19, a fully-vaccinated Mayorkas tested positive for COVID-19 as part of routine pre-travel protocols.
Three days earlier, Mayorkas had attended the 40th Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service at the U.S. Capitol alongside Biden, where they were photographed just feet apart without masks.
Psaki went toe-to-toe with Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy at one of her most recent press briefings, blaming unvaccinated Americans for Biden's poor poll numbers.
“I know you’ve mentioned COVID before, but is it also because of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan?” a reporter asked Psaki on Friday. “Is it the stalled agenda for President Biden? What do you suppose is the reason that we’ve seen this slide in the President’s approval ratings?”
“Well, a lot of people in this room work for organizations that have done polls, and there’s a lot of underlying data in them. And sometimes it differs,” Psaki claimed. “So, I would just go back to what our view is — is that we’re still going through a hard time in this country, and people are tired of fighting a pandemic. They’re tired of the impact on their lives.
"Some of them are sick and weary of those who refuse to get vaccinated, who they believe are interfering with their ability to live a normal life," she continued. Some people are still concerned about the safety of their loved ones. And we all assumed that it would be over by this point. Obviously, the Delta variant, as well as other circumstances, have resulted in — this being expanded."
Asked by @GrayDCNews’s Jon Decker about the fact that Biden’s “polls have declined sharply over the last few months,” Psaki laments that people are “still going through a hard time” with “some…sick and tired of people who won’t get vaccinated” and are impacting their happiness.
Asked by @GrayDCNews's Jon Decker about the fact that Biden's "polls have declined sharply over the last few months," Psaki laments that people are "still going through a hard time" with "some...sick and tired of people who won't get vaccinated" and are impacting their happiness pic.twitter.com/CAF2Twuabg
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 22, 2021
“And he knows that the best thing he can do is help get COVID under control, continue to work to address some fundamental issues in our economy, put people back to work, and that’s what he’s focused on every day,” Psaki said.
