White House Claims Joe Biden Opposed Coronavirus Lockdowns Despite 2020 Call for National Lockdowns

The White House on Friday claimed that President Joe Biden never supported coronavirus lockdowns, despite his endorsement of a national lockdown strategy during the 2020 campaign.

“We’ve not been pro-lockdown; that has not been his agenda — most of the lockdowns actually happened under the previous President,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during the daily briefing.

Psaki was asked by a reporter about a recent Johns Hopkins study that showed little to no public health benefit from lockdowns, but rather a significant social and economic toll on society.

“The president’s agenda, the president’s approach, has not been lockdowns,” Psaki said.

But during the president’s 2020 campaign, Biden repeatedly endorsed the idea of lockdowns.

In March 2020, during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden endorsed a nationwide lockdown, citing support for the idea promoted by billionaire Bill Gates.

“For the time being, I would. Yes,” Biden said when asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper about the idea of a national lockdown.

Joe Biden says there should be a nationwide lockdown "for the time being" amid the coronavirus outbreak in the US: "Two weeks in what is going to be a long fight to deal with this is a small price to pay" #CNNtownhall https://t.co/2WixulLJJ7 pic.twitter.com/fNodu0b16B

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 28, 2020

Throughout the pandemic, Biden supported the idea of Americans staying at home and social distancing, personally demonstrating his support for the idea by remaining sheltered at home and campaigning from his basement.

After taking office, the Biden administration also delayed plans to get more schools open in the Spring of 2021, giving teachers’ unions support to keep schools closed until every staff member was vaccinated.

“[T]ime and again, we’ve heard from educators and parents that have anxieties about that,” Biden said in March 2021, defending the idea of leaving schools closed until federal health officials deemed it safe to do so.

In February 2021, Psaki said schools should open only when it was safe.

“We want to do it safely and I’m not sure that any parent in this country would disagree with wanting their kids to go to school in a safe environment,” she said.