‘The Five’ discuss Biden’s ‘disconnect’ in response to ongoing crises
The panelists weigh in on the administration’s handling of pandemic, economic concerns.
President Biden's change in tone and decision not to call for lockdowns or sweeping socioeconomic restrictions after the discovery of the omicron variant of coronavirus may be a result of his edicts being "defanged" both by the courts and the possibility that many Americans believe he has "maxed out his COVID credit card", the panel on "The Five" discussed Tuesday.
In recent remarks, the president said the new variant discovered in South Africa, Botswana and surrounding nations is "a cause of concern, but not … panic" and appeared to shy away from demanding lockdowns as many leaders in his party had executed after previous outbreaks.
"Americans are buying what Joe Biden and selling when it comes to the pandemic," host Jesse Watters said Tuesday. "Only 40% of voters think he’s done a good job compared to 64% just six months ago."
Watters added that Biden and White House press secretary Jen Psaki have offered only "spin" in response to rising inflation and supply chain woes.
President Joe Biden, with first lady Jill Biden, speaks during a visit at Brookland Middle School in northeast Washington, on Sept. 10. Biden has encouraged every school district to promote vaccines, including with on-site clinics.
Host Dana Perino said Biden's most recent response to the pandemic has been "pretty good" in that he has not called for the lockdowns that gripped states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and California last year.
"He said we are not going back to lockdowns. I think he knows that that is, number one, not necessary, but also politically untenable," she said.
"He maxed out on his COVID credit card and now he wants to continue to swipe it -- but everyone’s like no, you are maxed out, you don’t have any more room to run on that."
"Plus things are different now," Perino added. "To his point, we have vaccines, but he doesn’t bring up the fact that a couple of companies, maybe three now, have a therapeutic pill that can be used for treatments."
Greg Gutfeld later argued that Americans are also in no mood for more socioeconomic restrictions-by-fiat.
"You do another shutdown, there's going to be actual credible resistance, not the kind of hashtag resistance we saw when Trump was elected. This will be for real," he said.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House November 12, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Watters later pointed to recent court cases in which the bench has either enacted stays or simply sided against Biden's position on mandates like forcing Americans at companies with more than 100 employees to be injected with a vaccine.
"His vax mandate got shot down by the court and then he delayed his federal vax mandate until after the holidays, so it’s kind of as if everything he has done has been defanged," he said.