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CNN Reporter Blasts Biden Over Schools: Won’t State ‘What The Science Says’ Due To Teacher Unions

   DailyWire.com
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 10: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as he makes a statement at the South Court Auditorium at Eisenhower Executive Building February 10, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden made a statement on the coup in Burma.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

CNN reporter Abby Phillip slammed the Biden administration on Wednesday over the unfolding problem that it’s facing regarding getting schools across the U.S. fully reopened for in-person learning, saying that politics on the political Left were a large part of the issue.

“We’re hearing a lot of conflicting stuff from the White House, especially right now about when the vaccines will be widely available, what counts in terms of reopening schools,” CNN host Jake Tapper said. “What do you make so far of the messaging from the Biden administration?”

“Yeah, I think mixed messaging is a little bit of an understatement, as [another CNN reporter] really clearly laid out. There’s been a lot of doublespeak, but I think they’re in two categories,” Phillip said. “One, I think, probably has more to do with the uncertainty of the vaccine development process, of the uncertainty around the variants, and what that means for the timeline for when everyone might get vaccinated and when we might return to normal.”

“But then there’s another category of things that seems to be just about politics, which is this idea that they can’t seem to just give a simple answer about what the science says about when schools should reopen, and what they might want from a political perspective before that happens,” she continued. “I think [White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator] Jeffrey Zients, who you saw there in [a CNN report] laid it out pretty clearly. It’s still puzzling to me why the vice president and the president won’t say this themselves, but the CDC guidelines say, it’s not a prerequisite to reopen schools, but the Biden administration very clearly wants for teachers to be prioritized. Both things can be true at the same time, they just … for some reason, refuse to say it.”

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Tapper later highlighted how President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have both championed moving teachers to the front of the line to get vaccinated, even though the CDC has “made clear teachers don’t have to be vaccinated for schools to reopen.”

“Why is it so tough for the Biden administration to give a straight, clear answer on this issue of when schools should open and just the general issue of teachers’ safety versus opening schools?” Tapper asked.

“Yeah, I mean, I think that they are torn,” Phillip responded. “Look, the teachers’ unions are a very powerful democratic constituency. And they feel very strongly that teachers should, at the very least, all be vaccinated before returning to school. But that is clearly not what the the CDC’s recommendations say. What is really puzzling to me is why the Biden administration, which ran on a campaign promise of having the science go first, and the science lead, can’t just simply state what the science says on the topic while also stating their preference for what they hope to happen.”

“I mean, they have even been, you know, it has even been suggested by some experts that they could offer a sort of carrot stick to states to prioritize teachers,” she concluded. “Why haven’t they done that, too, if the prioritization of teachers is so important? So, it’s hard for me to understand this, but from a straight up communications perspective, keeping that promise of letting the science lead seems to be something that they ought to be trying to do even on this issue, which is complicated, and it’s difficult for teachers and for families all across the country.”

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The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  CNN Reporter Blasts Biden Over Schools: Won’t State ‘What The Science Says’ Due To Teacher Unions