Tuesday marked the first White House press briefing in 21 days and, along with the fact that Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre still found a way to show up nearly an hour late (by starting a 2:30 p.m. briefing at 3:12 p.m.), Fox’s Peter Doocy returned with a stunning doozy by asking about President Biden attacking Israel and Vice President Kamala Harris code-switching between audiences.
Along with having a crutch in former DNC Chair and ex-Labor Secretary Tom Perez, there was plenty of other points to roll your eyes over softballs and tough questions from other usual suspects.
But it was Doocy Time that drew the eyeballs and looks of disgust from reporters around him. He led off with a simple question: “In the President’s public comments, why is he harder on Benjamin Netanyahu than he is on the terrorist leader of Hamas?”
Jean-Pierre insisted Biden “has been very, very clear about Hamas leaders and what they have done” and done so “multiple times”. Ignoring how Biden blamed Netanyahu for there not being a hostage deal, Jean-Pierre claimed “Hamas is responsible” for what’s happened over the last 10 months and Biden will continue to be “clear about that”.
This went right into Harris changing her dialect depending whom she’s speaking to, as we saw when contrasting her Labor Day speeches in Detroit and Pittsburgh: “Since when does the Vice President have what sounds like a Southern accent?”
Jean-Pierre was not amused, claiming she had “no idea what” he was “talking about”. Based on her tone of disgust, she, in fact, did as she called it “insane” (click “expand”):
JEAN-PIERRE: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
DOOCY: Well —
JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, this is —
DOOCY: — she was talking about unions in Detroit —
JEAN-PIERRE: — ugh —
DOOCY: — using one tone of voice —
JEAN-PIERRE: — is this something that you — completely —
DOOCY: — same line —
JEAN-PIERRE: — okay, Peter —
DOOCY: — that she — uh — she used the same line in Pittsburgh and it sounded like she at least had some kind of a southern drawl.
JEAN-PIERRE: — I mean, do you hear the question that you’re — I mean, do you think Americans seriously think that this is an important question. They care, you know what they care about? They care about the economy. They care about lowering costs. They care about healthcare. That’s what Americans care about.
DOOCY: So —
JEAN-PIERRE: That’s what they want to hear.
DOOCY: — okay, well, this is something —
JEAN-PIERRE: They care about — your colleague just asked me about demo — basically we talked about, went back and forth about democracy and freedom. That’s what they care about.
DOOCY: That’s — I agree.
JEAN-PIERRE: I’m not even going to entertain some question about the pres — it’s just — it — it’s just — hearing it sounds so ridiculous.
DOOCY: Well, but hearing it is —
JEAN-PIERRE: The question. I’m talking about the questions is — is just insane.
When Doocy asked if this was “how she talks in meetings here”, a flustered Jean-Pierre twice said she was “moving on” and into the restful questions (starting with one about Ukraine) from Voice of America’s Anita Powell.
Rewind to the top of the briefing with Perez discussing Biden’s new focus on promoting his years-old infrastructure law, ABC’s Selina Wang lobbed a tiresome liberal trope about how Americans haven’t grasped a liberal’s accomplishments on their behalf:
ABC’s @SelinaWangTV: “So, I've been talking to a lot of voters in battleground states and the top issue I hear over and over again is the economy. They still feel like prices are too high and that wages and opportunities aren't keeping up. So, why do you think so many Americans… pic.twitter.com/rtjdvAPG12
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 3, 2024
And making what he and Jean-Pierre claimed was his Briefing Room debut, CBS’s Scott MacFarlane reminded us of what should be his official job title (but somehow isn’t): January 6 correspondent.
OF COURSE. CBS’s January 6 correspondent Scott MacFarlane uses his Briefing Room debut to giddily wonder if the post-2024 election months will see violence pic.twitter.com/h3gHwOivzU
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 3, 2024
To his credit, the Associated Press’s Zeke Miller didn’t exactly go along with this and instead wondered how much taxpayer money is being spent on travel to make the administration feel good about its legacy:
AP’s @ZekeJMiller: “You said the purpose of this is to remind people what the President has done for them. You also said taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, so how much — uh — if you account for what the budget is for the Biden promotional piece… pic.twitter.com/NhxTTv6xt2
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 3, 2024
NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez interestingly had another key observation for Perez (who promptly ignored it):
NBC’s @GabeGutierrez: “One word that I did not hear in your remarks, and that's Bidenomics. So, is this infrastructure spending part of Bidenomics?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 3, 2024
Perez: “This infrastructure spending is part of ensuring that every community in the country, you have safe infrastructure, you… pic.twitter.com/hPWUUoYfs5
Finally, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann had this stunning question about allegations not a single home has been connected to broadband using an administration program that had $42 billion put behind it:
.@PhilipWegmann: “You talked a minute ago about high speed internet and I wanted to ask you, Brendan Carr, one of the commissioners on the FCC, has expressed frustration that, despite the $42 billion that was included in the President's infrastructure bill in 2021 through a… pic.twitter.com/WLqkD57fpz
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 3, 2024
To see the relevant transcript from the September 4 briefing, click here.
