Last Thursday it was announced that President Joe Biden had tested positive for 
COVID-19 and was, at the time, “experiencing very mild symptoms.”
While he received well wishes for a swift recovery from Democrats and Republicans alike, something the White House did not long after the announcement was made raised some eyebrows.
A photo was posted of Biden from the “POTUS” Twitter account showing him in an office at the White House. He was maskless, even though he had just been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
According to the CDC’s guidelines, you should “Wear a well-fitting mask if you must be around others in your home.” At least one other person had to have been around Biden at the time — the photographer who took the picture.
So here we had the President of the United States, who had just come down with COVID-19, not abiding by the guidelines on masks that he and other Democrats have repeatedly urged people to follow and shamed Republicans for not following.
This double standard did not go unnoticed by the White House press corps, as some reporters grilled press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later that day over why Biden didn’t wear a mask considering he had the virus, he was sitting indoors, and he had at least one other person in the room with him.
Jean-Pierre’s response?
“With the photo, he took off his mask so that we can — so that the American people could see him and see directly — you know, see the work that he’s doing and that he’s sitting at his deck — desk continuing to do his work.”
Because apparently, you can’t demonstrate how hard you’re working while you’re wearing a mask or something.
The very next day, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared at the National Urban League annual conference. Though she tested negative for COVID, she is still considered a “close contact” of President Biden’s and as a result, the CDC recommends she be masked when she’s around other people.
Harris indeed wore a mask … until she walked onto the stage, where she took it off and immediately hugged Birmingham Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin, who was also maskless.
Later that day, the White House was again grilled by reporters as to why Harris wasn’t following the CDC guidelines she and Biden have touted for the last 18 months.
Biden COVID response coordinator Ashish Jha was asked the question a struggled to come up with an answer that would make sense. At one point he appeared so desperate to get out of the situation that he stepped away and looked to Jean-Pierre for help.
She deferred right back to him.
All of this reminded me of the infamous Democrat “logic” we saw during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. According to their unstated rules, it miraculously didn’t spread when Democrats were caught maskless in situations where the CDC said they should be wearing one but it did when Republicans were out and about not wearing a mask.
We also saw this on Biden’s first day in office when he signed an executive order mandating mask-wearing on federal property and then immediately violated it when he and his family visited the Lincoln Memorial after his inauguration.
When then-press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about Biden not abiding by his own order, her response — as Jean-Pierre’s did last week — gave up the game.
“Yesterday was a historic moment in our history. He was inaugurated as President of the United States. He was surrounded by his family. We take a number of precautions, but I think we have bigger issues to worry about at this moment in time.”
As always, their rules never apply to them, only to everyone else, which is why so few people listen to them anymore.
North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
