Jen Psaki: What Biden Meant When He Said 'Xenophobia' Was...

President Donald Trump halted flights from China this time last year in an attempt to prevent the Wuhan coronavirus from spreading throughout the United States. When he implemented those travel restrictions, the left – including now President Joe Biden – accused Trump of being a "xenophobic" and a "racist." Health care leaders have repeatedly said that decision, especially being made so early on, helped prevent the outbreak in the United States from being worse than it currently is.

Before leaving office, Trump decided to roll back travel restrictions on those coming from Brazil, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. On Monday, Biden reimplemented those very travel bans.

Fox News' Peter Doocy asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the hypocrisy during Monday's White House press briefing.

"When President Trump was imposing travel restrictions in March, specifically on China, then-candidate Biden called it 'xenophobic' and 'fear mongering' so now President Biden is putting travel restrictions on people coming in from other countries. What word would we use to describe that?" the reporter asked.

"I don't think that's a fair articulation," Psaki said. She shifted her focus to the "Muslim ban" that President Trump implemented, saying that was what Biden referred to as "xenophobic." She also stated Biden supported the travel ban before last week's inauguration.

"He was critical of the former president for having a policy that wasn't more comprehensive than travel restrictions and he conveyed, at the time, and more recently, of having a multifaceted approach – mask-wearing, vaccine distribution, funding in order to get 100 million shots in the arms of Americans in the first 100 day – not just travel restrictions," Psaki said.

Jen @jrpsaki claims Biden called Trump’s Covid travel ban “xenophobic” because it was not “comprehensive" pic.twitter.com/7n1vet4pe5
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 25, 2021