On Monday’s Psaki Show, Fox News’s Peter Doocy returned to the Briefing Room (after colleague Jacqui Heinrich took a turn last week) and, as usual, he didn’t make it easy on Press Secretary Jen Psaki as they went toe-to-toe over President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden walking maskless in a Washington D.C. restaurant despite a citywide mandate and the President’s hypocrisy in calling for prosecution of those who defy January 6-related subpoenas.
As always, Doocy immediately cut to the chase with a short but biting question: “There is mask requirement inside D.C. restaurants, yet President Biden and the First Lady were not wearing masks while walking around a D.C. restaurant on Saturday. Why?”
Psaki brushed it off as images from when they were “walking out of a restaurant after they had eaten, masks in hand where they had not yet put them back on yet, so I would say, of course, there are moments when we all don't put mask back on as quickly as we should.”
She added that people shouldn’t “lose the forest through the trees here” when the real focus should be on both vaccinating people and instituting mass vaccine mandates.
Given the level of mask hypocrisy over the past year and a half, Doocy wasn’t having it:
DOOCY: It was not just exiting the restaurant, though. He was walking through the restaurant with no mask on. There is a carve out for people under two or people who are actively eating or drinking, so I'm just curious why the President was doing this?
PSAKI: I think I just addressed it, Peter.
With Psaki having said her peace, Doocy moved onto the fact that Biden broke his promise to have an independent Justice Department based on his calls for those who defy January 6 subpoenas to be prosecuted: “Why did the President break his promise not to enter into any decisions about what cases the Justice Department should bring and should not bring?”
Psaki started with her play dumb strategy and asked: “How did he break his promise?”
Despite that, Doocy played it cool: “Well, he was asked if the DOJ should prosecute people who defied January 6 committee subpoenas and he did not say, ‘I will let the Justice Department decide.’ He said, ‘yes.’”
Psaki finally dropped her cluelessness and reiterated a Friday night statement “where I conveyed clearly that, one, the President continues to believe that January 6 was one of the darkest days in our democracy” and that the DOJ “has the purview and the independence to make decisions about prosecutions.”
Doocy had enough and kept pushing with even more examples of Biden promising to not put his thumb on the scales as Psaki even argued that at least Biden wasn’t Donald Trump (click “expand”):
DOOCY: You say that that is his view, but that is not what he said.
PSAKI: I just conveyed what his view is, and that is also how he has operated, how he has governed, and how he will continue to govern, and I think that's what's important for people to watch.
DOOCY: So, what's changed since last year when he said, “I will not do what this President — former President Trump — does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to insist that something happen?'”
PSAKI: Well, since you give me the opportunity here, President — former President Trump used his office to incite an insurrection, He put political pressure on senior DOJ officials to propagate lies about the election to the point where they threatened to resign en masse. I think there's hardly a comparison there.
DOOCY: But the — he said — President Biden said, “the Justice Department and my administration will be totally independent of me” and he said he would not enter into any decisions about what cases the agency would bring and not bring. How is that not exactly what he is doing?
After that, Psaki shouted over Doocy before moving on that Biden “hasn’t” been telling the DOJ what to do and it’s something he’ll continue as “criminal prosecutions are their sole purview.”
Sure, Jen.
To see the relevant transcript from October 18's briefing, click “expand.”
White House press briefing [via FNC’s America Reports]
October 18, 2021
1:30 p.m. EasternPETER DOOCY: There is mask requirement inside D.C. restaurants, yet President Biden and the First Lady were not wearing masks while walking around a D.C. restaurant on Saturday. Why?
JEN PSAKI: Well, I think what we’re referring to is a photo of them walking out of a restaurant after they had eaten, masks in hand where they had not yet put them back on yet, so I would say, of course, there are moments when we all don't put mask back on as quickly as we should. But I don't think we should lose miss — lose the forest through the trees here and that our objective here is to get more people vaccinated, make sure that, uh — that schools and companies around the country can put in place requirements to save more lives and keep people safer and, you know, not overly focus on moments in time that don't reflect overarching policy.
DOOCY: It was not just exiting the restaurant, though. He was walking through the restaurant with no mask on. There is a carve out for people under two or people who are actively eating or drinking, so I'm just curious why the President was doing this?
PSAKI: I think I just addressed it, Peter.
DOOCY: Okay. Why did the President break his promise not to enter into any decisions about what cases the Justice Department should bring and should not bring?
PSAKI: How did he break his promise?
DOOCY: Well, he was asked if the DOJ should prosecute people who defied January 6 committee subpoenas and he did not say, “I will let the Justice Department decide.” He said, “yes.”
PSAKI: Well let me reiterate, And I put out a statement, also on Friday night to this, uh to this — uh, on this where I conveyed clearly that, one, the President continues to believe that January 6 was one of the darkest days in our democracy. He also continues to believe that the Department of Justice has the purview and the independence to make decisions about prosecutions and that is — continues to be his view and that — it — continues to be how he is — he will govern.
DOOCY: You say that that is his view, but that is not what he said.
PSAKI: I just conveyed what his view is, and that is also how he has operated, how he has governed, and how he will continue to govern, and I think that's what's important for people to watch.
DOOCY: So, what's changed since last year when he said, “I will not do what this President — former President Trump — does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to insist that something happen?'”
PSAKI: Well, since you give me the opportunity here, President — former President Trump used his office to incite an insurrection, He put political pressure on senior DOJ officials to propagate lies about the election to the point where they threatened to resign en masse. I think there's hardly a comparison there.
DOOCY: But the — he said — President Biden said, “the Justice Department and my administration will be totally independent of me” and he said he would not enter into any decisions about what cases the agency would bring and not bring. How is that not exactly what he is doing?
PSAKI: And he — and he hasn’t and he will not.
DOOCY: He said — someone asked —
PSAKI: And criminal prosecutions —
DOOCY: — him about prosecutions and he said he wants it to happen.
PSAKI: — are their sole purview. Criminal prosecutions are the sole purview of the Department of Justice. That is the President's position. That is what he nominated the attorney general to operate under. That is exactly what the attorney general is doing and those were the actions that people can watch from this administration.
