New York Times White House correspondent Annie Karni was criticized on social media after she made a comment to CNN apparently justifying former President Barack Obama’s much-criticized large birthday celebration at Martha’s Vineyard over the weekend, the New York Post reported on Monday.
While talking about the controversy surrounding his birthday bash, where the former president and attendees were seen not wearing a mask, Karni called the crowd there “sophisticated” and said the guests were “following all the safety precautions.”
Journalist Glenn Greenwald angrily responded on Twitter, writing “A NYT reporter on CNN justifying Obama’s huge maskless birthday bash because he only invited ‘a sophisticated, vaccinated crowd’ is about as emblematic of liberal discourse as it gets. What happened to all the concerns about vaccinated people passing Delta to the unvaccinated?”
Others joined in on the criticism, including lawyer Harmeet K. Dhillon, who mocked Karni by tweeting, ”Of course viruses don’t attack sophisticated people, Muffy!”
Karni attempted to clarify her statement, writing in a tweet that people should “watch the full clip. The Q was, what do people on the island think of the party? The A was me summarizing views of ppl I spoke with: some are upset, + others think the concerns about it are overblown. ‘Sophisticated crowd’ was from a quote in the story."
Obama had said that his party, which was originally meant to include more than 500 people, was “scaled back” due to the spread of the Delta variant, the New York Post reported.
However, he was widely criticized on social media after images from the birthday bash surfaced showing a massive tent and photos of people attending the party without face masks.
Upstate New York Rep. Elise Stefanik told the New York Post that “The liberal elites are laughing at us, attempting to sell this as a ‘scaled-back party,’” adding that “Democrats are imposing forced vaccine mandates, unscientific masks mandates, and are openly discussing lockdowns, while President Obama gathers with hundreds of maskless liberal elites who flew in on private jets with no vaccine requirement to attend.”