Now, as another surge threatens the progress he’s made on the pandemic so far, Biden has come to believe the time holding his tongue has passed. Taken together with the administration’s new openness to vaccine mandates and heightened criticism of vaccine disinformation, the direct calls on governors to alter their behavior reflect Biden’s impatience with forces he believes are prolonging the crisis…

“Getting into a heated public argument over this is exactly what sometimes plays into people’s hands who are making these decisions,” a senior administration official told CNN in March. “The President’s general view of the world is to not take the bait, not heighten the rhetoric, not trying to create a war.”

That mentality changed this week as another senior official told CNN this week that some GOP governors “are putting their political interests ahead of public health.” Psaki then made a similar point during her daily briefing on Tuesday, later echoed by the President himself.