A 14-year-old boy, left, receives a COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday in Lake Charles, Louisiana. President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. (Maria Tama / Getty Images; Alex Wong / Getty Images)
Isa Cox August 10, 2021 at 5:15pm
As the White House continues its efforts to increase vaccination rates across the country, it’s recruiting pop stars and social media influencers to help get the message out.
Over half of Americans between the ages of 12 and 25 are unvaccinated, and the Biden administration seems to believe these young people are just waiting to hear from their favorite TikTok stars before getting the shot.
On Tuesday, Benny Johnson of Newsmax tweeted an email he had obtained from a PR team working with the White House to recruit influencers for an “intimate” one-on-one call with the painfully hip Dr. Anthony Fauci, the progressive left’s god of coronavirus hysteria.
I imagine that the average high schooler interested in dancing videos and skin care routines isn’t exactly begging her favorite lifestyle vlogger to join Fauci for an Instagram Live chat — but I could be wrong. I really don’t get the kids these days.
And it is definitely kids that this campaign is targeting.
NEW: I’ve obtained the *Confidential* White House PR email sent to TikTok influencers begging them to “do an intimate” zoom call with Dr. Fauci.
The goal is to influence children as young as 12.
How much did the White House pay for this cringe video? pic.twitter.com/OApHdHf5iR
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 10, 2021
The email is marked “CONFIDENTIAL” and notes that it is “not for public distribution.”
“We have a highly sensitive (but pretty incredible) opportunity we’d love to discuss for [redacted]. We have been working with Dr. Fauci and The White House,” the PR agency purportedly wrote, citing a profile of this partnership published by The New York Times last week.
Do you support the Biden administration’s push to vaccinate children?
The email explains that the agency is “handpicking select influencers to do an intimate 1×1 Zoom call” with Fauci with the goal of informing young people about the vaccine, “as there is a massive need to grow awareness within the 12-25 age demo.”
As the Times divulged in its piece called “To Fight Vaccine Lies, Authorities Recruit an ‘Influencer Army,’” the White House has indeed been working with marketing agencies to recruit social media figures like 17-year-old Ellie Zeiler, who received a similar email in June and quickly agreed to join in the vaccination push.
This week, influencer Benito Skinner posted a cringeworthy video of his character “Kooper the Gen Z intern” flouncing around the White House in a skirted business suit and bumbling various tasks in press secretary Jen Psaki’s office — and yes, Psaki co-starred in this dumpster fire of a sketch.
Kooper’s antics as an ineffective intern are peppered with thinly veiled vaccine propaganda.
At one point, Psaki dictates to Kooper as he scrolls on his phone. “We’ve come a long way in our fight against this virus. We’ve vaccinated 160 million Americans,” she says.
Kooper the Gen Z (@WhiteHouse) intern 😋🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/zFItHhqJqp
— Benito Skinner (@BennyDRAMA7) August 9, 2021
In another scene, Kooper talks on the phone with his legs stretched casually on his desk, declaring, “We need to get shots in the arms of every single American.”
“How much did the White House pay for this cringe video?” Johnson asked as he shared the contents of the confidential email on Tuesday along with a screen shot of Skinner as the flamboyant White House intern.
Reporter Jack Posobiec tweeted later that a White House official told him “their PR people are freaking out” about the leaked email.
WH official says their PR people are freaking out the Influencer email got leaked by @bennyjohnson
“They didn’t think those emails would get to ANYONE on the political right, super pissed. All tik tokers are supposed to be Gen Z / Millennial Left”
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 10, 2021
Can you even imagine if the Trump administration had been caught reaching out to young influencers to promote its political agenda? Democrats would be opening congressional probes and, of course, calling for impeachment.
New York Times profile or no, it is certainly not a good look for the Biden administration to hire private marketing companies to convince children to get vaccinated.
It reeks of desperation on the part of President Joe Biden to not only make his vaccination campaign appear successful but also to coerce the “vaccine hesitant” into hesitating no longer.
In recent weeks, Biden has issued a vaccine mandate for federal employees and suggested cash payments for newly vaccinated Americans. Psaki, meanwhile, has revealed that the White House and the surgeon general flag “problematic posts” about the vaccine on Facebook.
Is there anything they won’t do to push the vaccine and control the narrative?
If you’re a concerned parent who hasn’t yet decided if you’d like your children to get vaccinated, you might want to check who they follow on social media — because the Biden administration wants them to think all the cool kids are doing it.
Isa grew up in San Francisco, where she was briefly a far-left socialist before finding Jesus and her husband in Hawaii. She now homeschools their two boys and freelances in the Ozarks.
Isa grew up in San Francisco, where she was briefly a far-left socialist before finding Jesus and her husband in Hawaii. She now homeschools their two boys and freelances in the Ozarks.