Biden, allies increasingly pushing back at GOP’s virus barbs

By ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, President Joe Biden has taken it on the chin from Republicans over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The president’s efforts to confront COVID-19 have long attracted a litany of fiery statements, legal challenges and more than a few barbs from his predecessor. But Biden was elected on the promise of depoliticizing the virus response and following the science, so responding in kind wasn’t seen as an option early on. Now, as public patience wears thin amid the emergence of the new omicron variant, the White House and its allies are seizing on what they see as a political opening to push back.