WATCH: White House claims Americans may want to wear masks on planes

"Public polling does not actually show that there is a universal view of people getting rid of masks, that is not actually what public polling shows," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in the press briefing room on Wednesday.

This after a question by reporters concerning the Biden administration's view of masking in transit, of which there were several during the briefing, since there was substantial confusion over the White House perspective. This after a federal judge overturned the administration's mask mandate.

"When you said a moment ago that it literally is a personal choice as to whether people decide to put their mask on or not on planes, does that messaging still reflect a shift for you all and maybe to some degree a capitulation to the mood of the public about maybe just wanting to be over this pandemic, or people who have politicized the wearing of masks in the first place?" Psaki was asked.

Psaki said that the president believes people should wear masks on planes and that just because they are "not currently implementing the mask mandate it is not a requirement, so people can choose even as we recommend it. But to be clear we are recommending everyone wear masks on planes."

"That is what the CDC is recommending and that is the public health guidance we are following," Psaki said.

Psaki said that the White House decisions were not based on public polling anyway, even though she said that public polling was not opposed to masking on planes. Videos emerged on social media after the ruling by a Florida judge stated that the administration did not have the authority to require in-air masking, which showed jubilant passengers doffing their masks while in flight, whooping and cheering, along with flight attendants.

"The president said yesterday that people should decide for themselves whether to wear masks on airplanes, and wondering if his comment was intending to signal a shift in thinking in the administration away from mandates and more toward personal responsibility," asked a masked reporter.

Psaki said that the president was "abiding by CDC guidance," and that the administration disagrees with the court ruling overturning the mandate.

Reporters still weren't entirely sure what the White House position was in terms of filing an appeal. "I still don't quite understand what the administration's position on how you're kind of approaching the mask issue is," a reporter asked, noting that the "Justice Department said that they would appeal the decision if the CDC wanted them to. The CDC has said that they wanted masking, they still think masking is important. So I don't understand why it's not immediately appealing, and especially seeking an emergency stay to potentially keep this in place while the CDC continues and sort of broader evaluation."

"Well, I'm, I don't even play a lawyer on TV," Psaki quipped, "so I won't get too much into legal strategy. But what I will tell you is the CDC obviously, as you noted, called for this extension, because they want us to look at more data. So I think we can all expect they're going to continue to want it.

"The Department of Justice is just waiting for that kind of final comment to take action and appealing they said they would appeal. In terms of when they will appeal, I'll leave that to them to speak to why not stay or an emergency appeal and they can speak to that but what I would note, the objective here is of course to appeal the 15-day extension but also to preserve the CDC authority over the long term because as we've noted here, we expect there to be ups and downs in the pandemic and we certainly want the CDC to continue to have this authority," Psaki said.

"I guess plain English," the reporter said, seeking clarity, "if the CDC determines at the end of that 15 day review period that they already had undergoing that they wouldn't have mass mandate and the Justice Department will not pursue this appeal."

"I would expect you'll hear from the CDC and very soon and I don't think it's at the end of 15 days in terms of their expectation and ask for an appeal," Psaki said.