White House press secretary Jen Psaki fielded questions from reporters on Tuesday for about 50 minutes and addressed President Biden’s confidence in Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, the role of Spotify using misinformation disclaimers, and N95 masks for Americans.
Here’s the White House briefing — in brief.
Biden is confident in Becerra
Psaki said that Biden remains confident in Becerra amid reports of frustration from White House officials with the job the secretary has done during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would just reiterate that the president remains confident in the role of Secretary Becerra, he is somebody who is an important partner, he has been leading a range of efforts from the …Department of Health and Human Services,” Psaki said when asked if the president still has confidence in Becerra.
The Washington Post on Monday night reported that officials have openly discussed who might be better suited for Becerra’s role and that they have a poor relationship with Becerra.
Psaki called such reporting “palace intrigue.”
“We’re less focused on — not at all focused I should say — on palace intrigue as much as we are on vaccinating Americans, fighting the omicron surge, expanding testing capacity and getting more therapeutics out to the American people. And, that’s how we believe we, and the leaders of the cabinet, will be judged,” she said.
Becerra has been under fire for what critics say is a lack of leadership in the COVID-19 response and outside health experts and former officials have accused him of taking a back seat during the crisis.
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