Tipsheet

Why Critics Are Circling Back to This 2020 Tweet from WH Chief of Staff

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  January 06, 2022 9:15 AM

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain may be regretting a June 2020 tweet criticizing the former administration over failures in testing, now that the same problem is plaguing the Biden administration.

“Testing still isn’t fixed. Testing still isn’t fixed. Testing still isn’t fixed. We are the richest country on Earth, and we don’t have enough SWABS. Testing still isn’t fixed. Testing still isn’t fixed,” Klain tweeted June 26, 2020.

Access to Covid-19 testing has become a huge point of failure as omicron cases skyrocketed across the United States over the holiday season, which even CNN admitted. At-home tests flew off pharmacy shelves the day they were restocked and Americans waited in lines for hours. 

Last month, President Biden acknowledged more could’ve been done prior to pledging 500 million rapid tests that would be distributed in January. 

"It's not enough. It's clearly not enough. If we'd have known, we'd have gone harder, quicker if we could have," Biden told governors in a call last month, despite reportedly rejecting a proposal in October to ramp up testing ahead of the holidays. 

Critics circled back to the tweet this week.