by Mark Silva
The White House found itself today in the position of having to clean up after Vice President Joe Biden's remarks about avoiding planes and trains because of the flu.
"I think what the vice president meant to say was the same thing that, again, many members (of the administration) have said in the last few days --'Iif you feel sick, if you are exhibiting flulike symptoms... you should take precautions, you should limit your travel,'' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said this afternoon.
The only problem is, that's not what Biden said this morning.
Biden, appearing on the Today show, was asked what he'd tell members of his family about flying to Mexico.
""I would tell members of my family, and I have, 'I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now,''' Biden said. "It's not that it's going to Mexico... It's that you're in a confined aircraft, where one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft...
"I would not be at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway,'' Biden said. "If you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing. If you're in a closed aircraft, or closed container or closed car or closed container, it's another thing.''
Gibbs, asked about the disparity between his explanation of Biden's comments and the vice president's own words, said:
"I understand what he said. I'm telling you what he meant to say... If somebody is feeling symptoms, if somebody is exhibiting symptoms of being sick, then they should take all necessary precautions...
"Obviously if anyone was alarmed... we apologize for that,'' Gibbs said.'
The only people alarmed were the travel industry.
(Photo of Robert Gibbs by Charles Dharapak / AP. For the full report on today's events with Vice President Joe Biden and the White House cleanup crew, read on:)
By Mark Silva
Reporting from Washington
The White House today quickly moved to clarify - and also to apologize for - what Vice President Joe Biden said about avoiding airplanes and subways because of the swine flu outbreak, suggesting that Biden really meant to say something else.
"I think what the vice president meant to say was the same thing that, again, many members (of the administration) have said in the last few days - 'If you feel sick, if you are exhibiting flulike symptoms... you should take precautions, you should limit your travel,''' said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
The trouble is, that wasn't what Biden said during an early morning appearance on NBC News' Today show.
"I would tell members of my family, and I have, 'I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now,''' Biden said today, when asked for advice about flying to Mexico, epicenter of a spreading swine flu outbreak.
"It's not that it's going to Mexico... It's that you're in a confined aircraft, where one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft,'' Biden said. "I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway...
"If you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing,'' the vice president said. "If you're in a closed aircraft, or closed container or closed car or closed container, it's another thing.''
The U.S. travel industry was quick to complain about the comment, and the vice president's own office was quick to say that he was speaking of traveling to Mexico - and that anyone who is ill should avoid public transportation
"I think he said something on TV differently from what he meant to say,'' Gibbs said at a White House press briefing this afternoon. "I think the vice president misrepresented what the vice president wanted to say.''
Pressed about the discrepancy between what Biden said and what the White House said he was saying, Gibbs said: "I understand what he said. I'm telling you what he meant to say - 'If somebody is feeling symptoms, if somebody is exhibiting symptoms of being sick, then they should take all necessary precautions...
"Obviously, if anyone was alarmed,'' Gibbs said, 'we apologize for that.''
The travel industry was.
Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, issued a statement:
"Swine flu should not discourage people from traveling to or within the United States (and)... Elected officials must strike a delicate balance of accurately and adequately informing citizens of health concerns without unduly discouraging travel and other important economic activity.''
The vice president's spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander, rallied first to Biden's assistance: "The vice president was asked what he would tell a family member who was considering air travel to Mexico this week. The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico.''
"If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways,'' she said. "This is the advice the vice president has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this week.''
The State Department has issued a travel advisory warning against travel to Mexico because of the flu outbreak there.
The vice president also defended the Obama administration's position that closing the border with Mexico, where the swine flu is believed to have claimed more than 150 lives, is not an effective means of fighting the spread of a disease already present in the United States and appearing in growing number of states.
He said so on the Today show, and added that it would be "a monumental undertaking'' on CBS News' Early Show.
"We're on top of this thing,'' Biden said on the Early Show.
With confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States growing and spreading to more states, the White House continues to face questions about closing the border with Mexico.
Health officials in the U.S. and at the World Health Organization have called border closings ineffective with a disease that already has been confirmed in many nations and is close to being declared a pandemic by the WHO.
President Barack Obama, asked about this at his news conference last night, said: "At this point they have not recommended a border closing. From their perspective, it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States.''
"We have contacted and been in contact with the leading health experts in the world,'' Biden said this morning on Today, "and they have suggested that is not the way we should move...
"What they have suggested is that we should deal with mitigation... Closing a classroom and closing a border are two fundamentally different things.''
The president has suggested that local officials might consider closing schools temporarily in places where swine flu emerges, and some schools have acted on that advice.
CBS'Maggie Rodriguez, on The Early Show, asked the vice president about the one swine flu fatality reported in the U.S., the death of a toddler from Mexico at a hospital in Houston.
"Now that a toddler has died in this country from it, why shouldn't we close the border with Mexico?'' Rodriguez asked.
"Closing down a classroom where... there's a detection of contagion and, you know, that's how the virus spreads, or closing down public meetings, is one thing,'' Biden said.
"But closing down an entire border where -- as you know, this is most communicable when, in fact, you don't even know whether people are not even showing the signs of the flu -- is just a monumental undertaking, and would not have nearly the impact would be to take these mitigating circumstances.''
The best medicine for parents, Biden said in the CBS interview, is washing hands, making sure their children do and "making sure that they are not in public places touching items that, in fact, have been touched by others, et cetera.''
Comments
Gibsy is like the guy who follows the horses with the shovel at the end of the parade. It's a thankless job but the horses (and Biden) can't help it, it's just what they do.
Posted by: vla | April 30, 2009 2:39 PM
Big Fracking Deal....
I'm always hearing Repugs harping about Biden being a gaffe machine, as if that's going to score them some points with the public somehow.... Meanwhile, the entire Repuglican party is a gaffe machine and has been for a long time.
Posted by: Jimi Jagger | April 30, 2009 2:42 PM
Just remember, this guy is a "Heart Beat" away from the presidency.
Posted by: springfieldspringfield | April 30, 2009 3:21 PM
Good thing The White House has a good propaganda machine to clean up after Biden "Trots Along."
Posted by: Inky | April 30, 2009 4:17 PM
Here's the video of Gibbs cleaning up Biden's mess:
http://www.gotchamediablog.com/2009/04/robert-gibbs-tells-press-corps-what-joe.html
Posted by: Matt | April 30, 2009 4:20 PM
They told me if I voted for McCain we'd have a moron as Vice President--and they were right!
Posted by: Party gal | April 30, 2009 5:27 PM
Biden and Other Comedy
We have more than a sufficiency today of instance of domestic, national, and international tragedies. We have a serious dearth of comedy, so serious that we have to search long and hard and look to serio-comedy, a tragic-comedic blend, for some balance.
We are favored today with few if any true, individual tragedies since we are blessed with few if any, true heroic figures who are requisites for classical tragedy. As rare as comedy is, tragicomedies must be employed as another source to lighten the mood.
As a respite from the usual, we present a variety of current examples of light comedy, tragicomedy, farce, and political humor.
Light Comedy–Of Cigars and Bowling:
Meet the Duggars, all 20 of them:
I try not to watch television shows depicting odd behavior and I would have to cite the unreality series, “Eighteen Kids and Counting,” as an example. The Duggars, (and no name-sniggering, please!), Michelle and Jim-Bob, must be out to set a production record with the number of their cherubs, 18 and counting plus a new grandbaby and new daughter-in-law.
As a registered cynic, i just think the family seems to be too good to be true, sort of like the near-perfect, all above average residents of Garrison Keilor’s Lake Wobegon. They also seem like nice, good, deeply-religious people but, seriously now, eighteen kids? Granted, the Bible tells us to be fruitful and multiply but God never suggested we do it like rabbits. I’m no environmental nut but the Duggar carbon footprint must approach Al Gore’s!
Anyone living in the real world would have to wonder where the Duggers live. What planet, that is. I’m not referring to their beautiful sprawling bunk house in Tontitown, Arkansas where the parents appear to do little else but make babies and their kids spend their time looking like cute refugees from “Little House on the Prairie.”
Admittedly, the Duggars seem well able to afford their huge brood and all the kids appear pretty happy, and as clean and attractive as Obama. Even more so.
It’s not really true that they’re homebodies, either. The Duggars are constantly on the move, all 18 of their progeny in tow. The clips of the clan going sky diving or touring Disney World or New York City has to raise suspicions that they could very well lose one or two along the way and would barely notice since there’s probably another one baking in Michelle’s oven.
That’s meanly facetious, of course, but when on the few occasions I’ve seen the show a W.C. Field’s comment comes to mind as does the comment of a friend’s mother in law. In related contexts, Fields is supposed to have said about excessive procreational activities, “I like my cigar too, but I take it out once in a while.” The mother-in-law, after her son in law had impregnated her daughter thrice in four years, asked him, “Why don’t you take up bowling or something?”
All in all, the Duggars represent pleasant, light comedy. See their website: http://www.duggarfamily.com/
Tragicomedy–Jon, Kate and Someone: Somewhat less wholesome is the case of another TLC reality show, “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” which features the Gosselin family, headed by an occasionally shrewish Kate Gosselin and her occasionally horny hubby, Jon.
Michelle Duggar would be horrified at some of Kate’s treatment of Jon and both Duggars would be aghast at Jon who is now suspected of looking for love in all the wrong places, with a few co-eds and conceivably in a bed not occupied by his wife: http://www.usmagazine.com/news/jon-and-kate-dad-caught-with-other-woman-2009284.
Compared to the Duggars, Jon and Kate’s brood is modest, a pair of twins and sextuplets:
Jon Gosselin, who achieved relative fame due to the accident of his wife birthing 6 babies in one fell swoop was caught wining, dining and maybe wooing a damsel other than Kate. Caught in the act, he apologized for his randy behavior, which is more than Senator John Edwards or actor Mel Gibson did when caught with their Fruit o’ the Looms down.
Apologies may not cut it for Jon. Mrs. Gosselin is no Mrs. Duggar and could very well bobbitize him in a future episode. It may be Jon’s good fortune that divorce is in the wind according to US Magazine and other sources, which would probably lead to TLC’s cancellation of Jon, Kate, and their eight.
Farce–The Wedding Crusher: So, a girl was getting wed last September. When Harry met Sandrina they fell in love and they shacked up lived together for 3 years and set the date. Things were moving along swimmingly on this the most important day of her life. Afterward, the bride sued a wedding guest, Harry’s boss.
Said guest allegedly stood up during the ceremony and said, “Me and Harry were good together. You had to ruin everything by marrying him. You f- - -ed everything up,” . . .
(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com/)
Posted by: Gene Lalor | April 30, 2009 6:05 PM
I'm just imagining the flap if Sarah Palin had said this...
Gosh darn, the silence from Democrats is absoultely deafening!
Posted by: Lizzie | April 30, 2009 6:14 PM
Was a shoehorn involved in the clean-up?
Posted by: Terry | April 30, 2009 7:39 PM
It isn't the remarks of Vice-President Biden's, that have reduced the use of our public transportation, including the airline industry. It is the greed, the fraudulent business practices and their obsession with the bottom line. In the case of the airlines, bailed out by the taxpayers, if they had spent the necessary monies to protect the public from the 9-11 marauders, in terms of security measures, they wouldn't have to worry about innocent comments, by anyone !! That holds true for all of our mass transit systems. The trains were allowed to go to seed and urban mass transit systems are now, overpriced and underfunded, understaffed and over managed !! You only get, for what you are willing to pay. A sneeze wouldn't be cause for alarm, on so many different levels. That Vice-President Biden would be taken to task for offering good advice, if you don't want to catch the flu, is ludicrous, to say the least. That his, and President Obama's critics have nothing better to do, than to twist and distort sensible words, tells the nation, how much more ridiculous the Republicans have grow, since their lose to the Democrats, in 2008 !! Mock, lie, distort as you might, you, Republicans, are a very distant second, and losing members by the hour !! Keep up the good work, President Obama and Vice-President Biden !! You will have my vote, again !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, America | April 30, 2009 9:45 PM
I know several people that have recently traveled from Mexico, and I was told that the Airlines they traveled on kept the air off in the plane and it was abnormally hot. Maybe they were worried about recirculating the bad air from the coughers and sneezers. I don't think Biden is off base with this one, there is always going to someone that is hyper-critical about the way things should be handled. And there is always going to be someone that thinks that it won't happen to them. Just Stay HOME don't go to work and or don't travel if your sick and don't go to school!
Posted by: curtis | April 30, 2009 10:57 PM
How condescending. What he meant to say was absolutely nothing like what he actually said? Come on WH, give us a break and give us the truth.
Posted by: cmarie | April 30, 2009 11:02 PM
Seems this particular flu may have been overhyped. Slow news week.
This one may have no higher mortality than the annual variety.
Higher mortality in Mexico reflects lower standard of health care there and lower resistance of many people.
So, again, Obama dodges a bullet. Or I should say, virus.
Posted by: ornery | April 30, 2009 11:54 PM
These same people that think they have a "gotcha" moment are the ones that tried to apologize for Bush's bungling of Katrina---that actually cost lives! How pathetic has the party of petty ankle biters become.
Posted by: dt☢ | May 1, 2009 12:43 AM
"Gibsy is like the guy who follows the horses with the shovel at the end of the parade."
That's priceless, thank you via!
The more ominous thing about White House censorship of Biden is the fact that the censorship is economically motivated. Obama and the democrats have bet the farm, our farm, on rosy-scenario predictions that future economic growth will 'halve' the quadrupled 2009 deficit, in four year's time. But it's unlikely that they saw things far outside of credit availability that could dampen economic growth. Like the fall of tourism in Mexico because of drug-gang violence and now swine flu. Or the fall in pork sales, worldwide.
Given Murphy's Law, more unanticipated setbacks to economic growth will undoubtedly unfold in addition to swine flu. When you fiscally hang two wheels going into a corner, better hope there's no oil on the road, from whatever source.
Posted by: dom youngross | May 1, 2009 1:14 AM
Yet again Gibbs demonstrates both his duplicity and his utter incompetence. Just another day at the office.
Posted by: Just some guy | May 1, 2009 8:57 AM
Biden had it right. Travelling in an airplane with sick passengers is not what i would encourage my family to do. on reflection how many pundits and carpers would put their family where their opinions are?
Posted by: swamp yankee | May 1, 2009 12:13 PM
Biden had it right. Travelling in an airplane with sick passengers is not what i would encourage my family to do. on reflection how many pundits and carpers would put their family where their opinions are?
Posted by: swamp yankee | May 1, 2009 12:13 PM
Swamp Yankee,
Can you prove the passengers are sick? If you think why take the risk, then you have just shut down commercial air travel
Posted by: Terry | May 1, 2009 8:38 PM