White House walks back previous statement on possibility of new COVID lockdowns

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The White House walked back a statement regarding the possibility of enforcing new coronavirus lockdowns due to the spread of the Delta variant.

On Thursday, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during the daily briefing if the administration would support future COVID-19 lockdowns.

Doocy asked, “So if you’re listening to the science, if scientists come to you at some point down the line and say it is our opinion that there should be shutdowns and there should be school closures, you would do that. “

Jean-Pierre replied to Doocy, saying that the Biden administration has not taken potential future lockdowns and school closures off the table.

“Well we listen to it. Like I said, we listen to the CDC and the expert and their guidance are, you know, the CDC is a body that is very well respected, And we follow again, we follow their guidance,” Jean-Pierre responded.

Hours later, the White House walked its statement back on Twitter.

A White House official pointed Fox News to a pair of tweets by Jean-Pierre on Thursday evening claiming the administration is actually not considering lockdowns — even though it said lockdowns remained on the table during the daily briefing earlier in the day.

“To be clear, here is what [President Biden] said this week: ‘more vaccinations and mask wearing in the areas most impacted by the Delta variant will enable us to avoid the kind of lockdowns, shutdowns, school closures, and disruptions we faced in 2020….We are not going back to that,’” Jean-Pierre wrote on Twitter.

“We will not be going back into lockdowns. Why? Because we now have the tools to put this virus behind us,” she continued. “The science says the vaccines work – including against the Delta variant. We urge Americans to get vaccinated.”

Jean-Pierre was also asked by Fox News’ Peter Doocy during the Thursday briefing about whether Americans should “trust” President Biden on his word that the nation is “not returning to lockdowns, shutdowns and school closures” after he called on Americans to wear a mask indoors even if vaccinated.

“President Biden says that we are not returning to lockdowns, shutdowns and school closures,” Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked, “But he also once said that we didn’t have to wear masks anymore once we were vaccinated. So why should Americans trust him now?”

“Well, because we listen to the scientists, we listen to the experts,” Jean-Pierre responded. “This is a public health situation. This is not about politics at all, this is about saving lives. And this is what the president is all about.”

“He wants to make sure that we are saving lives,” she continued. “If you look at, Peter, the last six months, that’s what he’s done every day and you see that in the numbers.”

Fox News’ Peter Doocy and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.

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