Monday’s White House press briefing was otherwise uneventful with plenty of process questions about the fallout from Hurricane Helene and concerns about Middle East tensions (which would grow Tuesday with Iran’s missile attacks), but Doocy Time brought the heat with challenging questions on dangerous illegal immigrants and how President Biden and Vice President Harris spent their weekend as untold numbers perished in North Carolina and the surroundings areas.
“13,000 people who have been convicted of murder crossed the border illegally and are living among us. So how much danger are you U.S. communities in right now because of this,” Doocy began, citing data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Jean-Pierre went down the route she did in June following a number of videos showing President Biden in states of confusion over in Europe, insisting they were all lies.
Uh — so, just a couple of things and I think it’s important to — to correct the record here. Uh — first of all, the false — there — the false representation of the data — uh — I shared, so that was what we are seeing — false representation. I got to call that out. We got to call that out and it’s been fact checked by some of your colleagues here by multiple — multiple — uh — multiple — um — outlets that has been debunked on what has been falsely misrepresented — or mis — misrepresented here, so we have to call that out.
Doocy had a simple follow-up to explain “what the misrepresentation is”, but Jean-Pierre refused to do so because the 13,000 number “is been falsely represented here” and “[i]f you look at the total returns and removal of the past year, that has been higher than every year under the previous administration since — since — uh — 2010[.]”
Moving on from whatever that meant, Doocy asked about Helene, noting North Carolinians “were drowning in their houses” while “Biden was at his beach house and Vice President Harris was hosting political fundraisers on the west coast.”
Jean-Pierre’s long, winding gobbledegook could be boiled down to they made phone calls and the people who are actual experts in disaster response were on the job (click “expand”):
The President did exactly what a President in this moment needs to do, which is directing his team to take action. One of the reasons that the FEMA administrator was here in this room on Thursday is the President wanted to make sure that we were sending a message out to folks who are going to be impacted by the hurricane and also wanted her to share how we were prepositioning on the ground. Remember, these are folks who do this type of stuff. We think about FEMA, you think about the Red Cross. You think about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This is what they do. This is what they do. And so, the President was on the phone. He said this when he was asked a question by one of your colleagues for more than two hours yesterday with governors and local elected officials making sure that they have what they needed. You heard me talk about Governor Kemp and what he said to the President himself. He said this and shared this in a press conference that the President has provided and said, what else do you need and he actually said to the President, we have what we need. So — and that’s, as you know, a Republican governor, and look, and I talked about how the Vice President also did her calls. She’s going to be going to the FEMA — FEMA agency and — in the center — the center to — to get her briefing later this afternoon. The President is continuing — continuing to have these conversations with folks on the ground — elected officials on the ground to make sure that they have what they need and directing his team to keep pushing.
Doocy moved on, but not before a final topic on the dock workers strike: “[H]ow worried your folks at the White House that a port strike that could make things like fruits and vegetables more expensive, could make it a lot harder for Vice President Harris to win the election?”
Of course, Jean-Pierre punted by citing the election and stating in part what the administration does believe is ensuring “workers are — are paid and wages and the economy is working — uh — and that we’re lowering costs for the American people[.]”
ABC’s Selina Wang followed and lobbed this ridiculous question smearing former President Trump for going to a part of Georgia hit hard by the hurricane:
“Former President Donald Trump is in Georgia in a region that’s been hard hit. Now given all the security that’s needed to accommodate him, is his visit putting a strain on resources there or impacting relief efforts?” – ABC’s @selinawangtv at WH briefing pic.twitter.com/8YbpRUrqzo
— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) September 30, 2024
To see the relevant transcript from the September 30 briefing, click “expand.”
White House press briefing [via ABC News Live subfeed]
September 30, 2024
3:16 p.m. EasternPETER DOOCY: 13,000 people who have been convicted of murder crossed the border illegally and are living among us. So how much danger are you U.S. communities in right now —
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: So —
DOOCY: — because of this?
JEAN-PIERRE: — I’m assuming you’re talking about the ICE data?
DOOCY: Yes.
JEAN-PIERRE: Uh — so, just a couple of things and I think it’s important to — to correct the record here. Uh — first of all, the false — there — the false representation of the data — uh — I shared, so that was what we are seeing — false representation. I got to call that out. We got to call that out and it’s been fact checked by some of your colleagues here by multiple — multiple — uh — multiple — um — outlets that has been debunked on what has been falsely misrepresented — or mis — misrepresented here, so we have to call that out. Um — and so, look, this is —
DOOCY: Can you clarify what the misrepresentation is?
JEAN-PIERRE: — the numbers that is being put out about how many people are out — is been falsely represented here. If you look at the total returns and removal of the past year, that has been higher than every year under the previous administration since — since — uh — 2010, if you look at it and — if we’re going to report something, a — data that’s out there, we got to do it in a way that is not — not confusing the American people and certainly not lying. And so, there has been — this has been fact checked — been fact checked — uh — and so this is the way that is being false falsely represented here is just not okay and — though — got to be really clear about that.
DOOCY: On Helene, people in west — western North Carolina were drowning in their houses this weekend. Others were losing everything. President Biden was at his beach house and Vice President Harris was hosting political fundraisers on the west coast. Is there a reason that they could not be here?
JEAN-PIERRE: The President did exactly what a President in this moment needs to do, which is directing his team to take action. One of the reasons that the FEMA administrator was here in this room on Thursday is the President wanted to make sure that we were sending a message out to folks who are going to be impacted by the hurricane and also wanted her to share how we were prepositioning on the ground. Remember, these are folks who do this type of stuff. We think about FEMA, you think about the Red Cross. You think about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This is what they do. This is what they do. And so, the President was on the phone. He said this when he was asked a question by one of your colleagues for more than two hours yesterday with governors and local elected officials making sure that they have what they needed. You heard me talk about Governor Kemp and what he said to the President himself. He said this and shared this in a press conference that the President has provided and said, what else do you need and he actually said to the President, we have what we need. So — and that’s, as you know, a Republican governor, and look, and I talked about how the Vice President also did her calls. She’s going to be going to the FEMA — FEMA agency and — in the center — the center to — to get her briefing later this afternoon. The President is continuing — continuing to have these conversations with folks on the ground — elected officials on the ground to make sure that they have what they need and directing his team to keep pushing.
DOOCY: And one more, how worried your folks at the White House that a port strike that could make things like fruits and vegetables more expensive, could make it a lot harder for Vice President Harris to win the election?
JEAN-PIERRE: I’m not going to talk about an election from here. That’s not what we’re going to do. That is ---- when it comes to making sure that workers are — are paid and wages and the economy is working — uh — and that we’re lowering costs for the American people, that is just the right thing to do, and that’s what this President focuses on. Every day, day in and day out, how do we have an economy that works for all? When it comes to this particular question that you’re asking me, we’ve said this many times and nothing has changed, we support collective bartering [sic]. It is the best way for American workers and employers to come to a fair agreement. We encourage all parties to come to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith. A — senior officials from the White House, Labor Department, and Transportation Department are in touch with the parties to urge them to return to the table and negotiate in good faith towards the — an agreement that benefits all sides and do it fairly and quickly, and this is something that we have said and we’re going to continue to push forward on.
DOOCY: Is the Vice President involved in these negotiations?
JEAN-PIERRE: What I can say is — I just named the secretaries that are involved, Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Secretary Julie Sue. and the director of National Economic Council Lael Brainard. What I can say is the president and the vice president are being regularly updated about the situation, and — um — I know there’s a question about the Taft Hartley. We — we never — uh — we have never invoked the Taft Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now, but this is a President that has been called a pro-union president by labor — by the labor unions because of how much he believes that the union built the middle class and so, that’s what you’re going to continue to see from this President. He’ll say regularly updated.
DOOCY: Thanks.
JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Selina.
SELINA WANG: Former President Donald Trump is in Georgia in a region that’s been hard hit. Now, given all the security that’s needed to accommodate him, is his visit putting a strain on resources there or impacting relief efforts?
JEAN-PIERRE: Here’s what I can say, and you’ve heard this from this President earlier today in his remarks where he said he will visit impacted communities this week and is taking caution — he is taking caution to avoid using critical resources that is needed right now on the road that — on the ground that people need and so, that should be everyone’s top consideration right now. That’s what we should be doing. That’s what we should be focusing, and I’ll leave it there.
WANG: So, were there any requests for Trump to delay his visit?
JEAN-PIERRE: I’m not getting into it anymore than what I just stated. The President has been really clear about how he sees his presence on the ground. As you know, when the President traveled, it’s a big footprint in this particular moment, he wants to make sure that he’s not taking away resource — resources. He wants to make sure that It is not taking away from the emergency — uh — resources that are on the ground and as I just stated, he believes everybody should adhere — adhere to that.
