With it having been six days since the last White House press briefing, there was litany of topics Tuesday for the ever-inept Karine Jean-Pierre and, needless to say, she dealt with them using her trademark dodges and inability to grasp the English language.
Unsurprisingly, Fox’s Peter Doocy, Fox Business’s Edward Lawrence and New York Post’s Steven Nelson challenged Jean-Pierre while others like the taxpayer-funded Voice of America and Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya came from the left.
Doocy Time started with a reality check about the administration’s kvetching about the failed border deal means little since Democrats controlled Congress and the White House for two years. In response, Jean-Pierre showed a delusion akin to something from Vice President Kamala Harris:
DOOCY TIME: “So you guys talk a lot, including today, about how the border wouldn’t to be such a big deal if Congress would have just passed the immigration bill on day one. Who was in charge of Congress on day one?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 6, 2024
KJP: “So, it’s been three years. It’s been three — three whole… pic.twitter.com/TDDPlkaQnc
Doocy’s second topic was President Biden’s latest sign of possible cognitive decline: “[H]ow is President Biden ever going to convince the three quarters of voters were worried about his physical and mental health that he is okay, even though in Las Vegas, he told the story about recently talking to a French President who died in 1996?”
A disgusted Jean-Pierre shot back that she was “not even going to go down that rabbit hole with you, sir.”
Doocy clapped back, repeatedly shouting at her and demanding an explanation for “what is the rabbit hole”. While trying to call on ABC’s Selina Wang, Jean-Pierre seemed to argue there’s nothing wrong with Biden since he’s (A) alive and (B) recently traveled to four different states.
As for Wang, one of her questions was a softball invitation to trash The Wall Street Journal for an op-ed pointing out the rampant support of killing Jews and radical Islam in Dearborn Michigan:
WATCH -- ABC White House correspondent Selina Wang invites KJP to attack the free press -- in this case, the @WSJOpinion section -- as “dangerous” for writing about Dearborn, Michigan being a hot bed of anti-Semitics, terrorist supporters, and radical Islam.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 6, 2024
KJP: “Um — so, look,… pic.twitter.com/1VJIETcAbh
A few moments later, Bloomberg’s Justin Sink called out the White House for what’s scheduled to be another foreign leader visit to the White House (the German chancellor) without a traditional press conference and Biden skipping a Super Bowl interview as proof of him avoiding the media.
Jean-Pierre’s answer was a trip as she bumbled, fumbled, and stumbled her way through a proclamation that Biden does “engag[e] with the press”. But Sink wasn’t having it and noted Biden “trails his predecessor in terms of” both “engagements” and sit-down interviews.
Speaking to Sink and The Journal’s Catherine Lucey moments later, Jean-Pierre actually said she wouldn’t “deny the — the numbers” because Biden has instead “communicate[d] in non-traditional ways” and things like TV coverage of Super Bowl should remain focused on the game.
Leftist hack Anita Powell of taxpayer-funded Voice of America went the other way with this question from the left (and a lengthy Jean-Pierre answer) insinuating black Americans dislike Israel: “What is the administration’s message to black voters who are already disillusioned over slow progress on racial justice, and we’re now upset over the situation in Gaza?”
Al-Arabiya’s Nadia Charters followed up, kvetching that Arab and black voters are upset with Biden because they feel that, by supporting Israel, he’s disregarding a belief in “justice and equality and human rights.”
Back to real questions, FBN’s Edward Lawrence had a question about the recent rash of major corporations laying off workers and then this stinging rebuke to Bidenomics: “The New York Federal Reserve just released a report today saying that Americans have $1.13 trillion in credit card debt, which is now another record. Is there an affordability crisis?”
Jean-Pierre dismissed these struggles, maintaining “the data has been very clear here that wages are going up” and “consumers are spending a lot more”.
Nelson wrapped the briefing and, after one about Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he seemed to trigger Jean-Pierre as he wondered whether Biden admitting there’s a crisis at the border gives legs to the notion that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lied by having previously said the border was secure (click “expand”):
NELSON: President Biden said today that the immigration system is broken and that he intends to drive home the message that, “the only reason the border is not secure his Donald Trump in his MAGA Republican friends.” Secretary Mayorkas repeatedly said that the border is secure and that’s one of the reasons House Republicans are trying to impeach him. Did President Biden just confirm that my Mayorkas gave Congress false information when he said that the border was secure?
JEAN-PIERRE: Can I — I actually want to go back to your question? It’s a ridiculous premise and a ridiculous statement that was made about this administration. So, I just want to be very about — about —
NELSON: [Inaudible] are saying.
JEAN-PIERRE: — yes. I just want to be very, very clear. It’s just ridiculous. Um, so — going to Secretary Mayorkas for a second, to your second question, we believe what House Republicans are doing, and I’ve said this many times — nothing new here — it’s shameless. It’s baseless. There’s no merit for it and, as I have been talking about this bipartisan agreement that came together with Republicans and Democrats over the last two months — two months, Secretary Mayorkas was involved. He was part of that and what they’re doing is, you know, it’s all politics here. Politics. And, as the President said, our immigration system is broken and he’s repeatedly asked repeatedly asked Congress for resources to take more action and secure the border. The administration, as I just mentioned, including Secretary Mayorkas, negotiated in good faith with Congress, and we believe that that bipartisan legislation should be passed, should be moved forward. But what House Republicans continue — want to do is choosing to play politics instead of doing their jobs. That’s what House Republicans are doing, and it’s really shameful, as I just started saying, and they should focus — they should focus on, um, what multiple — and here’s the thing, multiple House Republicans have said this too — that — that there’s no impeachable offenses committed here. That’s what some of their colleagues have said. Just yesterday, Republican Congressman Ken Buck wrote an op-ed saying that “weaponizing impeachment undermines both the Constitution and the seriousness that an impeachment ought to have. That is — one of their colleagues said this. So, we really shouldn’t even be talking about this. We really shouldn’t. It is a political play. It is a political ploy. And we encourage these House Republicans to drop these stunts that do nothing to address the serious issues and serious concerns that the American people have, including immigration systems, including the border —
NELSON: [Inaudible] mention it, though, with the President saying today that the border is not secure and Secretary Mayorkas saying under oath to Congress that it is.
JEAN-PIERRE: Here’s what I will say: Secretary Mayorkas has done everything, um, that he can do, uh, and to deal with what’s going on at the border. And to deal with a broken immigration — to the point where he was part of this negotiation process that we saw the Senate — the Senate go through. The President has confidence in the secretary and I think that’s what matters.
To see the relevant transcript from the February 6 briefing (including even more questions, such as one about East Palestine, one about the Texas border fight, two from Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, and then another anti-Israel question from Charters), click here.
