On Wednesday, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki why the Biden Administration was not “scolding” unvaccinated Americans more.
The exchange took place during the White House’s daily press briefing.
Reporter asks Jen Psaki why Biden isn't following Macron's example at today's press conference: "Why hasn't the president focused more on scolding the unvaccinated to try to tell them, 'Hey this is not working for society, we keep getting these shutdowns?'" pic.twitter.com/E8DIkklcec
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) January 5, 2022
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Reporter: ‘Why hasn’t the president focused more on scolding the unvaccinated?
Politico White House correspondent Daniel Lippman said to Psaki, “French President Emmanuel Macron said this week that he plans to hassle the unvaccinated to try to get them to get the shot. Since there are millions of Americans who have not been persuaded by the various government campaigns to get vaccinated, why hasn’t the president focused more on scolding the unvaccinated to try to tell them, ‘hey, this is not working for society, you know we keep getting these shutdowns?’”
Psaki replied, “I would say that if you look to just a little over a year ago, last December, only about a third of the American people were willing to get a shot. Today, over 85% of American adults have at least one shot.”
“And more than 70% are fully vaccinated,” she continued. “So our objective has been to continue to convey to the American people the fact that getting vaccinated will help protect them from hospitalization, from death.”
“It will protect their loved ones,” Psaki said. “It will help protect their neighbors and their community. We’ve had a great deal of success in that.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Macron suggested that the unvaccinated are “no longer” citizens in France. “The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off,” Macron told Le Parisien according to the Wall Street Journal. “And so, we’re going to continue doing so until the end. That’s the strategy.”
France's President Emmanuel Macron set off a wave of criticism from his political opposition Wednesday by using a vulgar term to lash out at unvaccinated people, framing their refusal to inoculate as a betrayal of French citizenship https://t.co/Tb618czjwk
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 5, 2022
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France’s Macron Causes Controversy With Comments About The Unvaccinated
“The unvaccinated, I really want to annoy them,” Macron said. “They undermine the solidity of a nation. When my freedom threatens that of others, I become irresponsible. An irresponsible person is no longer a citizen.”
Macron is trying promote French legislation that would require individuals be fully vaccinated in order to enter restaurants, gyms and other places.
In September, President Biden said that getting vaccinated in the U.S. is no longer about personal freedoms. It is “not a personal choice” the president claimed.