Joe Biden, who famously threatened to shut down the Fourth of July, and all our backyard celebrations if we didn’t get vaccinated in certain numbers by a certain date, now wants your selfies.
Kid you not, he tweeted this:
Folks, I couldn’t be happier or more proud to see Americans coming #BackTogether at BBQs and block parties across the country for Independence Day.
Tag your 4th of July photos with #BackTogether and @WhiteHouse and you may get a signed copy of your 4th of July photo from me. pic.twitter.com/w61aUGxyD2
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 3, 2021
Which is kind of disgusting, because just three months ago, he hectored Americans with this:
But I need you, the American people, I need you, I need every American to do their part.
And that’s not hyperbole. I need you. I need you to get vaccinated when it’s your turn and when you can find an opportunity. And to help your family, your friends, your neighbors get vaccinated as well.
Because here’s the point, if we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th, there’s a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day.
That doesn’t mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together. After this long, hard year, that will make this Independence Day something truly special, where we not only mark our independence as a nation but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.
But to get there we can’t let our guard down. This fight is far from over, as I told the woman in Pennsylvania. I’ll tell you the truth. On July Fourth, with your loved ones, is the goal.
His tiny pro-offered carrot on private gatherings included an “or else…” ultimatum:
Unity is what we do together as fellow Americans. Because if we don’t stay vigilant and the conditions change, then we may have to reinstate restrictions to get back on track. And please, we don’t want to do that again. We’ve made so much progress. This is not the time to let up. Just as we were emerging from a dark winter into a hopeful spring and summer is not the time to not stick with the rules.
What’s more, he left himself a whole host of reasons to crap out on his ‘promise’ leaving lots of wiggle room for himself, and for us, little to wonder about what he’d really like to do, which is keep the economy shut forever:
But a goal, a lot can happen. Conditions can change. The scientists have made clear that things may get worse again as new variants of the virus spread. We’ve got work to do to ensure that everyone has confidence in the safety and effectiveness of all three vaccines.
In other words, get vaccinated for COVID whether you like it or not, or no July 4 cookout for you.
Joe had a grand old time playing the Grinch on this, ordering us to do something to his liking or no Fourth of July.
He even claimed there was just a little to go:
When I took office 50 days ago, only 8 percent of Americans — after months, only 8 percent of those over the age of 65 had gotten their first vaccination. Today, that number is 65 percent. Just 14 percent of Americans over the age of 75, 50 days ago, had gotten their first shot. Today, that number is well over 70 percent.
But actually, turns out that he lied, it’s not even a 70% vaccination rate and this is with the passage of three months:
Two months after President Joe Biden pleaded with the nation to “bring it home” and stomp out the virus, the U.S. has officially fallen short of his goal to fully immunize 160 million Americans and to ensure 70% of adults get at least one shot by the Fourth of July.
It was a benchmark the new president set to try to rally a country eager to move on from lockdowns and other restrictions by promising a celebration of the nation’s “independence” from the virus.
And he certainly didn’t persuade anyone to reach the goal.
But instead of shutting down all Fourth of July private barbecues as he had threatened now that the vaccine goal has not been reached (how the hell would he do it anyway with defunded police on countless private gatherings?) he’s now trying to be Mr. Nice Guy and pretend he just adores your baby pictures at the barbecue on the 4th, and wanted to reopen the economy instead of shut it down all along.
The White House this weekend is planning to celebrate anyway, hosting a barbecue on its South Lawn on Sunday with 1,000 first responders and military personnel. Earlier during the holiday weekend, on Saturday, Biden will visit a cherry farm in Traverse City, Michigan, to tout the economic resurgence marked by a positive June jobs report. Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff also were hitting the road using the upbeat slogan “America’s Back Together.”
Advisers close to Biden have defended the decision to host the large White House Fourth of July party, pointing to other examples of progress with the pandemic — including a 90% drop in deaths and hospitalizations since January with more than three-fourths of seniors having become fully immunized.
Notice that he’s also having a great big gathering, while having told you that yours must be small, and strictly contingent on his centrally planned vaccination numbers.
And after that schoolmasterly browbeating, he now wants your selfies, as the tweet above demonstrates.
Apparently, someone in the White House came up with the idea of calling on the public to send in their Fourth of July celebration selfies based on what’s done during professional baseball games, where people put selfies on Twitter with a certain hashtag, (in San Diego, it’s #FriarFaithful) and then either see them retweeted by the sports organization to its huge followership and/or projected on one of the giant stadium screens during a live game. These things are fun, and everybody does them, I certainly have.
In Biden’s case, they’re less fun based on two realities — one is that Biden is going to use them to reap political hay for himself and his party, while his social media big tech allies are likely to use them for data-mining purposes. No thanks.
Can you imagine an evil schoolmaster issuing an either/or ultimatum and not getting what he wanted, and then asking you after he’s just threatened you for your selfies? Would definitely look creepy.
Obviously, this new stance of Joe’s is a bid to ride the wave of the states — which have dropped mask requirements and gotten their economies working again, and ended beefed up unemployment benefits to encourage workers to return to work. They did these things as Biden screamed bloody murder, and created a wave so strong Biden is now following it, claiming the whole idea as his own and hoping we wouldn’t notice.
Biden’s hypocrisy, though, is still there. While he hosts his big huge July 4 party at the White House and claims success on COVID, despite his arbitrary and missed vaccination rate goal, he’s nevertheless shut down South Dakota’s fireworks show on COVID concerns, according to a disgusted Gov. Kristi Noem, who tweeted this in retort:
Biden’s shutdown there wasn’t on COVID concerns, for now he has none. It was because President Trump enjoyed a fireworks show there last year, and Trump supporters gathered to enjoy them too. There were no significant COVID outbreaks, but that didn’t concern Biden. He views such fireworks as Trump events, rather than national events, and has done all that he could to stop them, yelling COVID from his big backyard barbecue of his own, with a call for selfies from the public to make it all about credit for himself.
Hypocrite, much, Joe?
Whatever you do, don’t send Creepy Joe any selfies.
