KJP Runs Scared, Deflects When Grilled by Fox’s Heinrich, Lawrence on the Economy

Curtis Houck
September 13th, 2024 12:53 PM

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On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was lucky to have softballs from liberal journalists discounting the mass, unfettered immigration puts on small towns, schools, and social services like in Springfield, Ohio as, leaving those aside, she was hit with searing questions on the economy and government spending by Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich and Edward Lawrence.

Heinrich cited “a new analysis by the Republicans who are on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee” that found, in “seven battleground states....the average household is paying, for the same basket of goods and services on average, about $1,000 more per month compared to January 2021.”

 

 

She cited “pretty stark” examples in places like Arizona and Nevada skyrocketing to $1,200 a month to $1,075 in Georgia and then $1,017 in North Carolina before asking: “Has President Biden's policies positioned the Vice President poorly in these states to win this election?”

Jean-Pierre insisted that’s not the case because “core inflation has come down...because of the work that [we’ve] been able to do” and “wages are rising faster than prices are, nearly 16 million jobs created” but “we do understand that there is more work to be done.”

She also tried to throw in the tiresome lines claiming the 2024 GOP wants cut entitlements, but Heinrich hit back by noting “no one is running on” that and “we went through all of that” before.

Heinrich eventually interjected to Jean-Pierre’s word salad:

I mean, you had [National Council of Economic Advisers chair] Lael Brainard say that we've turned the page on inflation, but American families aren't feeling that to the point where the Vice President didn't even directly answer the question in the debate. Do you believe that Americans feel they're better off than four years ago?

Jean-Pierre likewise wouldn’t say yes or no and instead emphasized “we have made progress against inflation” and Harris “plans to build on that progress”. But, she added, they were hamstrung by “an economy that was in a tailspin...because the former President didn't [sic] nothing” on Covid.

Lawrence closed out the briefing, starting with this stunning statistic about childhood poverty:

He then had this stunning follow-up: “$904 billion in non-defense spending in 2024 and you're telling me that the only — the child tax credit is the way to fix childhood poverty?”

Jean-Pierre doubled down this wasn’t enough, arguing success of one provision in the child tax credit meant that should have been expanded if not for Republicans.

Lawrence segued into the deficit, which this year clocked in at $1.9 trillion based on the latest finding from the Treasury. This made him wonder what the plan was for the national debt other than vague calls to raise taxes.

 

 

Jean-Pierre got wildly defensive and attacked Lawrence for not blaming the Trump presidency for increasing the debt by $8 trillion and peddled the misleading claim about Biden reducing the deficit. This led Lawrence to fact-check her with the reality that spending is still exceeding what’s taken in (click “expand”):

JEAN-PIERRE: So, we got to step back here for a second. Uh — the last administration increased — they increased the debt by a record $8 trillion. I hope you wrote about that. They didn't sign a single law to reduce the deficit. I hope you wrote about that . The president — President Biden — the current President signed a $1 trillion of deficit reduction into law. He's taking action to deal with our deficit. $8 trillion deficit in the last administration. I really hope you wrote about that and his budget would lower the deficit by another tril — three trillion by making millionaires and — and biggest corporations pay their fair share to your question, that's what it would do, cutting spending on special interests. That's what he wants to do. Republicans want —again, they want to increase the deficit by expanding the tax — the Trump tax cut, which would cost $5 trillion. That's what they want to do. So, I — I really hope you wrote about in the past what the Trump administration did when it came to the deficit and what we've had to — what we've had to deal with and fix.

LAWRENCE: But we still have deficit spending!

JEAN-PIERRE: And every question that you ask me, I mean, there's some irony —

LAWRENCE: [Inaudible] over here —

JEAN-PIERRE: — Every question that you ask me is something that we're trying to fix and Republicans get in the way of. Literally every question that you ask me.

LAWRENCE: — [inaudible] here. I’m talking about the debt. The — the —

JEAN-PIERRE: I — I —

LAWRENCE: — actual amount — deficit spending is still deficit spending. How do we reduce debt?

JEAN-PIERRE: — I'm telling you what the President has done. $1 trillion is not a small number in trying to in signing a legislation to deal with the deficit. Now, 8 trillion, a record number in debt. That's what the Trump administration did.

Before going to the softballs from the left, there was this question about press transparency from Bloomberg’s Justin Sink about why there’s not a joint press conference set for Friday between Biden the new British Prime Minister:

Rewinding to earlier in the briefing, CBS’s Weijia Jiang had this teeball question on whether the White House blames Donald Trump for bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio after Trump’s claim about Haitian immigrants eating pets:

ABC’s MaryAlice Parks immediately followed with this, which shouldn’t even be considered a question:

Later, AFP’s Aurelia End wondered whether Trump calling out the situation in Springfield will lead to more “threats or even hate crimes targeting migrants”:

To see the relevant transcript from the September 12 briefing (including questions form Heinrich and NBC’s Monica Alba about Biden briefly donning a MAGA hat offered by a man he met at the Shanksville, Pennsylvania fire hall on September), click here.

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