With the spotlight Thursday on a January 6 Committee hearing, the White House press briefing moments prior faded to the background, but it was filled with nonsense as Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre continued to use her binder as a life raft. Despite that, she sounded divorced from reality as Fox’s Peter Doocy repeatedly scored points on domestic oil production and fact-checking President Biden on inflation.
Doocy began on inflation, doing what the press would often claim to be doing with Donald Trump (though it often crossed into political sniping): “Why is the President saying in — in — pardon — why is the President saying that inflation is worse everywhere but here?”
Jean-Pierre insisted it’s “what we have seen across the globe” and that “inflation is a global challenge, as we have said” because of the coronavirus and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
After she claimed the U.S. is doing better than the others in the G-7, Doocy called out the lies by saying he “did look globally” and these claims offered by Biden and his team (which includes Jean-Pierre) are “not true”: “U.S. has worse inflation than Germany, France, Japan, Canada, India, Italy, Saudi Arabia. So, why is he saying that?”
Jean-Pierre doubled down with some nonsensical spin: “[W]hen you talk about inflation, it is a global thing, and it is not just about the United States. This is something that everyone is feeling.”
Doocy moved on to domestic oil production:
Why isn't the President asking oil companies to drill more here in the U.S.?...I know his letter was a lot about refining and increasing refining, but that's a lot of oil that comes in from overseas. So, why isn't he asking companies to drill more here[?]
Following some binder flipping, Jean-Pierre’s notes didn’t make much sense other than it blamed oil refineries for refusing to move production “back to pre-pandemic levels.”
Seeing as how the droning meant little in substance, Doocy asked again: “Why not drill more here in the U.S., though?”
Jean-Pierre insisted “we don't need to do that” because what’s necessary is force oil companies to use “the oil that’s out there” to “refine [it], so that — so that prices — so that capacity can go up and then prices would go down — inherently go down.”
Having shown Doocy knows way more about this than she does, Doocy moved on with another simple question: “I know the President once said that he was going to end fossil fuels. Is that now off the table?”
Jean-Pierre argued their “clean-energy proposal” is still “mov[ing] forward,” so that led to the question of whether the White House cares more about that or helping struggling Americans. From there, cross-talk ensued (click “expand”):
DOOCY: And, so is that the priority?
JEAN-PIERRE: So, here —
DOOCY: Climate change over gas prices?
JEAN-PIERRE: No, that’s not what we’re saying.
DOOCY: What is the priority?
JEAN-PIERRE: We’re saying — we’re saying that —
DOOCY: The President is going to be —
JEAN-PIERRE: — we’re saying —
DOOCY: — the President for —
JEAN-PIERRE: — I’m answering — I’m answering —
DOOCY: — another two and a half more years.
JEAN-PIERRE: — the question.
DOOCY: Is his priority —
JEAN-PIERRE: I’m trying to answer your question.
DOOCY: — lower gas prices or is it addressing climate change?
JEAN-PIERRE: First of all, we — it's — you can do both at the same time. What we're trying to deal for — which we’re trying to — deal with right now is how do we lower costs for American families and one of things that we’re seeing currently right now with oil refineries is they are using this moment that there is a war in Ukraine to — to actually make a profit when they — there are steps that they can take so that we can actually lower — lower gases — lower gas prices for families. And so, the President has taken action, right? We’ve talked about the strategic petroleum that he’s done — tapped into.
Doocy closed out his back-and-forth by citing a statistic Jean-Pierre cited moments earlier, which was that 240 millions barrels of oil have been released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but that still hasn’t staved off sky-high prices.
Asked why that’s been the case, Jean-Pierre in part offered a rhetorical shrug: “[I]f the President had not taken the actions that he's taken in the past several months, it would not — it — the prices that we see now would be a lot worse.”
For the next few minutes, Jean-Pierre’s incoherence was on display thanks to her inability to answer basic questions from NBC’s Peter Alexander, The Wall Street Journal’s Catherine Lucey, and even Matt Viser of The Washington Post about when President Biden last had a test for COVID-19.
Karine Jean-Pierre can't even tell NBC's @PeterAlexander when President Biden was last tested for COVID and what his testing schedule is currently.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 16, 2022
She's not using her notes and it's even worse than when she uses them (which is saying a lot) pic.twitter.com/aiVSj524kK
To see the relevant transcript from June 16's briefing, click “expand.”
White House press briefing [via NBC News Now Live Event]
June 16, 2022
12:28 p.m. EasternPETER DOOCY: Why is the President saying in — in — pardon — why is the President saying that inflation is worse everywhere but here?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Because what we have seen across the globe. First of all, inflation is a global challenge, as we have said. It is — it is — it is — it is caused by, clearly, the pandemic, this once-in-a -generation pandemic that we are coming out of and also, most recently, the war that — that Putin started in Ukraine that has caused inflation as we look food and as we look at gas prices. So, if you look at — globally — other countries, and if you look at where we are at economically, if you look at the Group Seven — the G-7 — we are in a much stronger place than we are economically than — than the rest and also —
DOOCY: And — and I did — I did look —
JEAN-PIERRE: Yep.
DOOCY: — globally, though. He says that inflation is worse everywhere but here. That's not true. U.S. has worse inflation than Germany, France, Japan, Canada, India, Italy, Saudi Arabia. So, why is he saying that?
JEAN-PIERRE: Well, I think what we are saying is that, when you talk about inflation, it is a global thing, and it is not just about the United States. This is something that everyone is feeling because of coming out of a once-in — once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, because of the war that Russia has started in Ukraine.
DOOCY: Okay. Why isn't [he] asking oil companies to drill more here in the U.S.?
JEAN-PIERRE: Let me just — let me just give you a little bit of a rundown of why we’re here.
DOOCY: And just — I know his letter was a lot about refining and increasing refining, but that's a lot of oil that comes in from overseas. So, why isn't he asking —
JEAN-PIERRE: So —
DOOCY: — companies to drill more here in the U.S.?
JEAN-PIERRE: — well, hold on. So, here we go. So, this is where we are. I mean, let me give you a little bit of a rundown of why are here and what’s going on and why we wrote the letter. So, due to decreased demand at the start of the pandemic, U.S. oil refineries reduced their capacity by more than 800,000 barrels a day. Now that consumer demand has returned, thanks to the President’s recovery plan, oil refineries have still not brought refinery capacity back to pre-pandemic levels, so that is the problem and that is what we’re trying to address. At the same time, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine put pressure on global supply and gas prices have gone up by nearly $2 since before the invasion. So, President Biden has taken historic actions to elevate this pressure, releasing record amounts of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and relying — relaying the world to — to — to — relaying the world to rele — release oil to — that’s that 240 million barrels of oil that he was able to do with his partnership. And, so, we’re now at the highest levels of domestic production, so we actually have a — of crude oil since April of 2020 with an addition 9,000 approved drilling permits that remain used but refinery capacity needs to come back too. So, that is what the problem is. We need them to actually refine the crude oil, which is not happening and that is what we’re calling on oil companies to do.
DOOCY: Why not drill more here in the U.S., though?
JEAN-PIERRE: We — because we don't need to do that. What we need them to do is, with the oil that's out there, we need to — them to refine that oil so that — so that prices — so that capacity can go up and then prices would go down —
DOOCY: Okay.
JEAN PIERRE: — inherently go down.
DOOCY: And so, I know the President once said that he was going to end fossil fuels. Is that now off the table?
JEAN PIERRE: No, we are going to continue to move forward with our clean-energy proposal, our climate change proposal.
DOOCY: And, so is that the priority?
JEAN-PIERRE: So, here —
DOOCY: Climate change over gas prices?
JEAN-PIERRE: No, that’s not what we’re saying.
DOOCY: What is the priority?
JEAN-PIERRE: We’re saying — we’re saying that —
DOOCY: The President is going to be —
JEAN-PIERRE: — we’re saying —
DOOCY: — the President for —
JEAN-PIERRE: — I’m answering — I’m answering —
DOOCY: — another two and a half more years.
JEAN-PIERRE: — the question.
DOOCY: Is his priority —
JEAN-PIERRE: I’m trying to answer your question.
DOOCY: — lower gas prices or is it addressing climate change?
JEAN-PIERRE: First of all, we — it's — you can do both at the same time. What we're trying to deal for — which we’re trying to — deal with right now is how do we lower costs for American families and one of things that we’re seeing currently right now with oil refineries is they are using this moment that there is a war in Ukraine to — to actually make a profit when they — there are steps that they can take so that we can actually lower — lower gases — lower gas prices for families. And so, the President has taken action, right? We’ve talked about the strategic petroleum that he’s done — tapped into.
DOOCY: 240 million barrels. How much has that lowered prices?
JEAN-PIERRE: Here's the thing — here's the thing, Peter. If we — if the President had not taken the actions that he's taken in the past several months, it would not — it — the prices that we see now would be a lot worse. It’s actually blunted some of the increase that could have been. And so, the President has taken action. He has been a leader, so now he’s asking Congress clearly to act in certain ways and also asking for the oil refineries to do their part and not make money off of a time of war. That’s what we’re talking about here.
