On Monday, just hours after a federal judge struck down the nationwide public transportation mask mandate, major airlines (and even President JOE BIDEN’s beloved Amtrak) began telling their passengers they could stop wearing the protective face coverings — sometimes while they had already boarded and taken their assigned seats.
The surprise ruling seems to have caught the White House flat-footed on the question of whether or not to appeal the ruling.
- Officially: White House press secretary JEN PSAKI told reporters the administration was “reviewing the decision, and, of course, the Department of Justice would be making any determinations about any litigation.”
- Unofficially: The White House is still figuring out what to do next, weighing two very big factors: credibility and politics.
Just last week, the Biden administration extended the mandate to May 3 — a move made “in the face of increasing opposition from the airline industry as well as Republicans and some Democrats in Congress,” as our Alex Daugherty and Erin Banco report.
“White House officials have repeatedly stressed that any further extension of the mask mandate would be made by the CDC,” Alex and Erin write. And that suggests a few interesting options for the administration:
If the administration doesn’t appeal:
- As a matter of credibility, it risks hurting the institutional authority of the CDC, which they said would be central to the decision-making process. It also raises the question of why the administration just re-upped the mandate if this was really the policy it wanted.
- But politically, it takes a tough issue off the White House’s plate. Democrats have already been moving away from mask mandates for months, saying it’s time for folks to get back to normal. The move by the court makes that decision for them.
If the administration does appeal:
- As a matter of credibility, it reiterates the CDC’s central role in setting health-related pandemic policies.
- But politically, the administration would risk political blowback on a hot political topic heading into the summer travel season. And it would give voters a clear target of who to blame for mask mandates despite prominent Democrats’ efforts to distance themselves from the unpopular (if scientifically sound) policy.
JUST POSTED: FORECASTING 2022 — This morning, POLITICO came out with its first election forecasts of the 2022 cycle. Here’s how it looks right now … The House: likely Republican. The Senate: leans Republican.
Steve Shepard and our campaigns team break it all down at The Election Forecast, POLITICO’s just-launched hub to get you up to speed on 2022’s marquee races across the country — the ones every political nerd will be talking about for the next 200 or so days. Click through to learn about the 21 races to keep an eye on
Speaking of 2022 …
NEW POLL — At this point, the outcome of the midterms is (surprise!) a crapshoot. In a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, voters are almost equally split between Democrats and Republicans on the generic congressional ballot: Forty-three percent of voters would go for the generic Dem, and 42% for the generic Republican. And another 16% of voters say they still haven’t made up their minds. Toplines … Crosstabs
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Read More: To mask, or not to mask?- POLITICO