Following his inauguration before a near-empty National Mall Wednesday — thanks to the political theatrics of 26,000 military personnel ostensibly present to “prevent violence” and “protect the Capitol” — Joe Biden got busy signing 17 executive orders and acts making clear his “unity” theme was a ruse.

One executive order in particular, Biden’s “100 days to mask” mandate on all federal property, proved to be little other than a publicity stunt designed to promulgate a narrative that Biden is serious about “following the science” in his efforts to end the COVID pandemic. Never mind the fact that the wearing of masks has become nearly ubiquitous in all federal buildings, as well as in airports and most businesses across the country. Furthermore, almost all the states have followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 guidelines.

However, when it came to actually following his own EO, Biden couldn’t be bothered. He and his family were caught Wednesday evening touring the Lincoln Memorial not wearing masks. When White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was questioned about it the next day, she dismissively responded, “I think we have bigger issues to worry [about].” Well, so much for all that talk about mask-wearing being a “patriotic duty.”

Biden’s effort to reset the COVID narrative and paint the Trump administration’s response to combat the pandemic as an abysmal failure went into full swing. Biden reiterated his “100 million vaccinations in 100 days” objective. However, when asked by a White House pool reporter, “Shouldn’t you set the goal higher? That’s basically where the U.S. is right now.” Biden snapped back: “When I announced it, you all said it wasn’t possible. C'mon. Gimme a break, man! It’s a good start.” Who said what was not possible?

For the record, in the week before Biden took office, 912,497 vaccine doses were administered per day — 91% of Biden’s goal of one million per day. And that’s right on target with the Trump administration’s ramp-up goal.

That notwithstanding, parroting the “no plan” narrative, under the CNN headline “Biden inheriting nonexistent coronavirus vaccine distribution plan and must start ‘from scratch,’ sources say,” Biden’s most dutiful Leftmedia propaganda proliferator quoted that source: “There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch.”

Except, of course, Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine development and distribution plan was remarkably successful, producing not one but two COVID-19 vaccinations in record time.

A day later, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who set the Trump administration’s pandemic response course and whom Biden chose to keep in that role — apparently because he did such a great job for Donald Trump — responded to a question about the reset narrative.

Fauci was asked, “Is the Biden administration starting from scratch with the vaccine distribution effort, or are you picking up where the Trump administration left off?” He answered in classic Biden-ease, “No. I mean, we’re certainly not starting from scratch, because there is activity going on in the distribution.” Really, “activity going on.” Fauci continued, “So, [Biden’s plan] is taking what’s gone on and amplifying it in a big way.” The reporter then pressed, “President Biden said that what was left was abysmal. … Is there anything actionable that you’re taking from the previous administration?” Fauci responded, “We’re coming in with fresh ideas, but also some ideas that were not bad ideas with the previous administration. You can’t say it was not usable at all. So, we are continuing, but you’re going to see a real ramping up of it.”

In other words, Fauci is playing his part in the narrative reset. As political analyst Miranda Devine notes, “In his inauguration speech, President Biden pledged to ‘defend the truth and to defeat the lies.’ So let’s start by being brutally honest about Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been the source of some of the most damaging misinformation about COVID-19.”

The Trump administration’s response to the pandemic was not “abysmal” — it was by any objective measure an amazing success under the circumstances. And recall that on the same day Biden signed the meaningless masking order, he declared, there “is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next few months.”

By seeding the false claim that he inherited no vaccine distribution plan, Biden and his administration, along with their Leftmedia cheerleaders, are attempting to create a faux narrative of gross incompetence on the part of the Trump administration in order that any and all successes can be attributed only to the Biden administration. It’s all fictional, of course, but so is Joe Biden’s leadership record for the last 50 years.

As Mark Alexander observed, “Biden’s reset button is as phony as Hillary Clinton’s last effort at using a reset button as a prop.”

(Updated.)