Karine Jean-Pierre on how Biden caught COVID: ‘I don’t think that matters’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stunned reporters Thursday when she brushed off an inquiry about how President Biden caught COVID-19, saying: “I don’t think that matters.”

Biden developed symptoms Wednesday evening — less than four days after he returned to Washington from a trip to Saudi Arabia — and tested positive Thursday morning, according to the White House.

“Where exactly was the president infected?” a journalist asked Jean-Pierre and White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha at a briefing focused on the 79-year-old president’s health.

“I don’t think we know,” Jha said, before turning over the podium to Jean-Pierre.

“Look, I don’t think that that matters, right? I think what matters is we prepared for this moment,” the press secretary said, leaving reporters slack-jawed.

“You said it doesn’t matter where he got it. But how can it not matter where he got it?” asked CNN’s Jeff Zeleny. “That is something that, of course, is involved in contact tracing, this administration has taken it very seriously — how could it not matter?”

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“I think what I was trying to say is, what’s important now is that he has mild symptoms, is that he is working from the [White House] residence on behalf of the American people. That’s our focus,” Jean-Pierre said, before adding: “Look, we knew this was going to happen.”

“What I am trying to say is, the moment that we’re in right now is what matters as we’re talking about the president and his treatment, and how he’s feeling and how he’s continuing to work on behalf of the American public,” the press secretary claimed later in her response to Zeleny.

Biden returned from his Mideast trip around midnight Saturday and on Sunday attended a Catholic church service in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood. He had no public events on Monday or Tuesday, except for a brief outdoor traveled to Massachusetts on Wednesday for a global warming-focused event shortly before falling ill.

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1550179049598861314?s=20&t=tCxfuMUHJRngcOyyyrEIuw

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The predominant and highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 has a median murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Jha said that a sample of the virus that infected Biden is being sequenced, which could provide greater insight into how and where the president contracted the virus.

Jean-Pierre also refused to directly answer a reporter’s question about whether the government is preparing to transfer power temporarily to Vice President Kamala Harris should Biden’s condition worsen.

“The president is — has mild symptoms, he’s able to do the business of the American people from the residence and that’s what matters right now,” she said.

Jean-Pierre and Jha also faced repeated requests from journalists for a briefing with Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to allow for more detailed discussion of the president’s symptoms and prognosis.

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According to a a video statement released Thursday afternoon and Jean-Pierre said he also has a “dry throat.”

George Condon, a National Journal reporter and former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, urged Jean-Pierre to bring O’Connor to the briefing room.

“The question is when will Dr. O’Connor come out? Because to just put out a statement and shield him from questions would be the least transparency of any White House in 50 years on a presidential illness,” Condon said.

“I wholeheartedly disagree on your last statement,” Jean-Pierre said. “So we are doing this very differently, very differently than, I would argue, than the last administration, and I’m happy to have that conversation with you.”

COVID-19 has killed more than 1 million Americans since March 2020. Biden has received four doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, lowering his risk, and is also taking the medication Paxlovid to reduce symptoms.

As part of the treatment, O’Connor suspended Biden’s use of two heart medications during a five-day course of Paxlovid to prevent negative drug interactions.