I’ve been reporting on the Obama birthday party. Really, it should be noted that it was more like three days of party with pre-party on Friday, the big do on Saturday, and then an after-party get-together on Sunday. But it was the big party with hundreds of people on Saturday that drew a lot of the attention, as we reported, because they claimed they were scaling it back because of the pandemic; that it would be “only family and close friends.” Then they were busted when the pictures and video showed that there were still hundreds of people there. One person who did apparently get dusted from the party was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who sounded all huffy about it on Sunday morning, saying that she had other parties to go to.

But a New York Times reporter reporting on the massive 60th birthday party Barack Obama threw, despite the pandemic, set people’s teeth on edge with some of her remarks.

White House Correspondent Annie Karni was describing the party on Martha’s Vineyard, saying that some viewed it as low virus risk because it was a “sophisticated, vaccinated crowd.”

"a sophisticated, vaccinated crowd" pic.twitter.com/qzh3glcQTQ

— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) August 8, 2021

Oh, forgive us, elitists. We didn’t know that the virus differentiated on the basis of “sophistication.” But isn’t this typical? There always seems to be a special spin when Democrats or folks on the left are involved. We saw that last year, too, when  BLM protests were considered essential but lockdown protests were somehow super spreaders. Again, the virus somehow knew that they should avoid those with the correct leftist opinion, apparently.

Yes, it’s a pandemic and a crisis, but let the sophisticated people have their fun!

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 8, 2021

Of course viruses don’t attack sophisticated people, Muffy! 🦠 https://t.co/l50zvvLZYG

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) August 8, 2021

What is the difference between hosting a super spreader versus a sophisticated gathering? pic.twitter.com/H6AFVwXBLl

— Grace Curley (@G_CURLEY) August 9, 2021

Karni later responded to the backlash saying that she was quoting the opinion of neighbors on the island. “Watch the full clip,” Karni tweeted. “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.”

But that’s exactly the point. She’s citing elitist snobs on the island with that. Apparently, only the little people can catch the virus. Would she even have included something like that if it wasn’t an Obama/Democratic party? Would we have heard any positive spin at all about a right-leaning event?

Karni asked that people look at the full clip. The full clip actually reveals they weren’t actually requiring that people be vaccinated and that Karni seemingly defending them, saying it was outdoors and that the guests had to submit negative COVID tests. In my opinion, it does show her being dismissive.

Deceptively edited clips on this site are toxic so I’m going to call one of them out:

CNN’s Jim Acosta asked NYT’s Annie Karni what people on the island were saying about the Obama party, not for her own opinion on it (i.e. “sophisticated”).

Here’s how @anniekarni responded: pic.twitter.com/9GZ3k0iBtR

— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) August 8, 2021

But “outdoors” is a questionable characterization, since they were at least partially “indoors,” maskless in enclosed tents. Plus negative COVID tests also aren’t an absolute guarantor either, as we saw in the case of the Amy Coney Barrett ceremony at the White House, where everyone had to be tested and then people still got the virus. So the full clip doesn’t exactly make Karni sound any better.

Bottom line here? Obama had all kinds of folks flying including John Kerry in his private plane (climate change, people!). He got static over it, then tried to gaslight us about cutting it back, and got busted. Once again, the “rules for thee” crowd got busted and why anyone thinks we should pay attention to anything these people say, I will never know.

it’s like there’s a circle of elites making all the decisions and then the rest of us https://t.co/VpDaRhkAzR

— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) August 8, 2021