White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki touted President Joe Biden’s vaccine press release directing businesses with 100 or more employees to require the COVID-19 jab as “federal law” on Tuesday, in an attempt to downplay efforts by Republican governors to secure medical freedom for their constituents.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order on Monday banning COVID-19 shot mandates by any entity in the Lone Star State. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also taken action to prevent institutions in his state from requiring “vaccine passports.”
Psaki, however, accused the Republican governors of “putting politics ahead of public health” and said they are hurting Biden’s goal to “work to get more people vaccinated.”
Psaki on TX Gov. @GregAbbott_TX and FL Gov. @RonDeSantisFL banning vaccine mandates:
"Our intention is to implement…these requirements across the country, including in the states where there are attempts to oppose them."
THIS IS TYRANNY. pic.twitter.com/WhJwNElCtT
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) October 12, 2021
She also claimed that Biden’s order is “federal law” that supersedes any order by a state government.
“When you make a choice that’s against all public health information and data out there, it’s not based on what is in the interest of the people you are governing,” she said, ignoring all of the data that suggests that requiring the COVID jab doesn’t prevent the spread of the virus, even though President Biden falsely claimed it does last week.
Jen Psaki tells @nancycordes that "politics" is the reason Texas Gov. Abbott banned vaccine mandates in the state: "When you make a choice that's against all public health information and data out there, it's not based on what is in the interest of the people you are governing" pic.twitter.com/cB7lzUqpWG
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 12, 2021
As The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann previously noted, “Biden’s so-called vaccine mandate doesn’t exist — at least, not yet.”
“There is no executive order. There’s nothing but press statements,” Pullmann wrote last week. “Despite what you may have been falsely led to believe by the media fantasy projection machine, press statements have exactly zero legal authority.”
Psaki later acknowledged that an official, enforceable rule from the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is not here but promised that it is coming. She said could offer no “expectation of when that’ll be finalized.”
“I would say that requiring and mandating for businesses of 100 people or over vaccines is not a small task. That is a big bold proposal idea and something that we want to implement with as much clarity as we can,” she said. “We know there will be questions, even after these rules are put out, we understand that. But that’s why we wanted to take a little bit of time, not too much time, to get it done.”
Source: The Federalist
