During Wednesday’s Doocy Time at the White House press briefing, one of the questions from Fox White House correspondent Peter Doocy drew looks of incredulousness and disgust from liberal journalists seated next to and behind him. Doocy’s crime? Asking White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if the response to Hurricane Idalia was smoother vs. the Hawaii wildfires because President Biden wasn’t on vacation.
Doocy was blunt: “[I]t seems like the hurricane response so far is robust. Did you guys realize that the initial Hawaii wildfire response was not that good, or is it just easier for people to get help from the White House when the President is not on vacation?”
As he finished, NBC’s Peter Alexander closed his eyes and raised his eyebrows as if he couldn’t believe Doocy’s query and, behind them, liberal reporter Annie Linskey of The Wall Street Journal did the same before briefly squinting in Doocy’s direction.
Jean-Pierre, not surprisingly, was also taken aback and told him that she “disagr[eed]” with “the premise of your question and the way you pose the question.”
“So, if you talk to, if you were to do your reporting and speak to the governor of Hawaii, the senators of Hawaii, the folks on the ground, they would say that the President reacted in record time when he came to dealing with the wildfires, when it came to dealing and making sure they got everything they need on the federal level,” she added in part.
Before moving on, she reiterated her disdain at how Doocy’s question was “wrong” and “flawed in many, many ways.”
Spoiler alert: Of course Hawaii’s governor and two senators would sing Biden’s praises given they are, in fact, Democrats, and it’s what partisans do for each other.
Doocy had a question before that on the border: “Eric Adams, the New York mayor, is saying, about these migrants in New York City, any plan that does not include stopping the flow at the border is a failed plan. So, why aren’t you guys stopping the flow at the border?”
Jean-Pierre insisted without hesitation or stammering that “[w]e are stopping the flow at the border” and that “the data’s showing that it is indeed stopping, slowing down the flow of unlawful migration and that is because of the work that this President continues to do without — without the help of Republicans,” who’ve been “play[ing] politics.”
Fact-check: Pants on fire.
Our friend Jeanie Taer at the Daily Caller weighed in:
Karine Jean-Pierre just asserted that Biden is "stopping the flow" of illegal immigration at the southern border @DailyCaller
— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) August 30, 2023
THE TRUTH:
There were 2.2 million illegal migrant encounters in FY22, the highest on record, and 1.6 million encounters already in FY23. pic.twitter.com/XGTu47dDq1
And, down on the border, NewsNation’s Ali Bradley tweeted Wednesday morning that “2,274 migrants crossed into the Tucson Sector yesterday” with “[a]gents telling me the normal ‘high’ or encounters before this current surge was around 1,500.”
Back at the briefing, the Daily Mail’s Rob Crilly invoked a new book from a Biden biographer that claims he, in Crilly’s words, “has told aides in private that he felt tired and that explains why there are so few events before 10 a.m.”
Jean-Pierre played dumb before blasting it as “ridiculous” (click “expand”):
CRILLY: There's a new book coming out — The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future. The Guardian has excerpts today saying that the President has told aides in private that he felt tired and that explains why there are so few events before 10 a.m. So — so two questions: Is this why we're seeing brunch lids in recent weeks? Today, we had a breakfast lid and has the President admitted to you
JEAN-PIERRE: Wait —
CRILLY: — that he felt tired.
JEAN-PIERRE: — say that last part.
CRILLY: So, is that why we had a breakfast lid this morning? I mean, the book is —
JEAN-PIERRE: A what?
CRILLY: — there was a break — a breakfast lid came to the press —
JEAN-PIERRE: Oh.
CRILLY: — for the first time, I think. We’ve had some brunch lids in recent weeks as well. So, my question is this a terrible reflection —
JEAN-PIERRE: So, you think we’ve had those lids because — because of this excerpt?
CRILLY: — not because of the excerpt. The book is suggesting the President tells aides he’s tired.
JEAN-PIERRE: But that’s in the excerpt, right?
CRILLY: Yeah and that — that’s why there have been so few public events before 10 a.m.
JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, that’s a ridiculous —
CRILLY: So, you would [INAUDIBLE] push back on?
JEAN-PIERRE: — assumption to make. I mean, that’s a ridiculous assumption to — to make.
In the left column Reuters’s Jeff Mason had to ask FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell “to what extent do you attribute climate change as a cause of this storm and the other weather events that we're seeing over the last weeks and months?”
While she couldn’t “attribute” Idalia to climate change, “we are seeing an increase in the number of severe weather events.”
USA Today’s Maureen Groppe also planted her flag on the left, repeatedly pressing Jean-Pierreto update the Biden regime’s effort to appoint someone with the full force of the federal government to target schools that have removed political divisive and sexually explicit material from schools.
To see the relevant transcript from the August 30 briefing, click “expand.”
White House press briefing [via ABC News Live subfeed]
August 30, 2023
1:18 p.m. EasternJEFF MASON: Administrator, to what extent do you attribute climate change as a cause of this storm and the other weather events that we're seeing over the last weeks and months?
DEANNE CRISWELL: Yeah, you know, I'm not going to attribute the cause of this storm, but what I can say is that we are seeing an increase in the number of severe weather events. And what we saw with this storm, as we have seen with several other hurricanes over the last few years is that they're intensifying more rapidly due to the elevated heat of the water temperature in the Gulf or in the Pacific or whether it's in the Atlantic. These storms are intensifying so fast that our local emergency management officials have less time to — to warn and evacuate and get people to safety. This is something that we have to take into consideration as we build our preparedness plans, as our local communities build their preparedness plans on how they're going to communicate and prepare their communities for the types of storms that they're going to face in the future.
(....)
1:45 p.m. Eastern
MAUREEN GROPPE: At the beginning of June, the White House announced the Education Department was going to be appointing a coordinator to address book bans. I asked the Education Department for status update and I couldn’t get an answer, so I’m — since you’ve got students returning to the classroom now, can you give us an update on when this is going to start?
JEAN-PIERRE: So, that is something for the Department of Education. I don’t have an update for — for you on that particular question. But, again, that’s something for the Department of Education. I know they’re going to announce somebody. I just don’t have it right at this time.
GROPPE: So, they are going to be announcing someone?
JEAN-PIERRE: I — I just don’t have — I know they said that — that — that was announced, that there was going to be a book czar. I just don’t have anything for you at this time.
GROPPE: Will it be possible at some point to get a description of what this coordinator has done, what schools they’ve reached out, what that outreach has looked like?
JEAN-PIERRE: Again, that’s something for the Department of Education to speak to directly.
(....)
1:49 p.m. Eastern
ROB CRILLY: There's a new book coming out — The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future. The Guardian has excerpts today saying that the President has told aides in private that he felt tired and that explains why there are so few events before 10 a.m. So — so two questions: Is this why we're seeing brunch lids in recent weeks? Today, we had a breakfast lid and has the President admitted to you
JEAN-PIERRE: Wait —
CRILLY: — that he felt tired.
JEAN-PIERRE: — say that last part.
CRILLY: So, is that why we had a breakfast lid this morning? I mean, the book is —
JEAN-PIERRE: A what?
CRILLY: — there was a break — a breakfast lid came to the press —
JEAN-PIERRE: Oh.
CRILLY: — for the first time, I think. We’ve had some brunch lids in recent weeks as well. So, my question is this a terrible reflection —
JEAN-PIERRE: So, you think we’ve had those lids because — because of this excerpt?
CRILLY: — not because of the excerpt. The book is suggesting the President tells aides he’s tired.
JEAN-PIERRE: But that’s in the excerpt, right?
CRILLY: Yeah and that — that’s why there have been so few public events before 10 a.m.
JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, that’s a ridiculous —
CRILLY: So, you would [INAUDIBLE] push back on?
JEAN-PIERRE: — assumption to make. I mean, that’s a ridiculous assumption to — to make. [TO DOOCY] Go ahead, Peter.
PETER DOOCY: Thank you. Eric Adams, the New York mayor, is saying, about these migrants in New York City, any plan that does not include stopping the flow at the border is a failed plan. So, why aren't you guys stopping the flow at the border?
JEAN-PIERRE: We are stopping the flow at the border. If anything, the — what the President has been able to do on his own without the help of Republicans in Congress, something that he had to do on his own again because Republicans refused to give the funding necessary to deal with a situation — a broken immigration system that has been broken for decades. They chose — what they choose to do is play politics. But the person — the President has put a plan that is indeed — the data’s showing that it is indeed stopping, slowing down the flow of unlawful migration and that is because of the work that this President continues to do without — without the help of Republicans.
DOOCY: Okay, and it seems like the hurricane response so far is robust. Did you guys realize that the initial Hawaii wildfire response was not that good, or is it just easier for people to get help from the White House when the President is not on vacation?
JEAN-PIERRE: So, the premise of your question and the way you pose the question I disagree, just for the record. So, if you talk to, if you were to do your reporting and speak to the governor of Hawaii, the senators of Hawaii, the folks on the ground, they would say that the President reacted in record time when he came to dealing with the wildfires, when it came to dealing and making sure they got everything they need on the federal level to deal with what was going on on the ground. Let's not forget, more than 600 federal employees on the ground already to assist with the wildfires in Maui. So, your question is — is wrong, it’s flawed in many, many ways and I would — I would advise you to go speak to the governor and the local and state officials in — in — in Hawaii.
