Fox News journalist Peter Doocy and Karine Jean-Pierre went round and round on Friday as the White House Press Secretary repeatedly refused to condemn harassing Supreme Court justices, like Brett Kavanaugh, eating out at restaurants. At one point she just dismissed, “That is what a democracy is.”
Doocy started off with a fairly straight forward question: “Does the President think it’s appropriate for abortion-rights protesters to intimidate Supreme Court justices when they are out to eat? Like Brett Kavanaugh who had to sneak out of a steakhouse last night.”
Jean-Pierre insisted that the White House is against “violence” and “intimidation.” She didn’t explain how hounding a justice out of a restaurant isn’t intimidation. Then this exchange occurred:
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Peaceful protests, people should be allowed to be able to do that.
DOOCY: In a restaurant?
JEAN-PIERRE: If it’s outside of a restaurant, if it is peaceful, for sure.
DOOCY: Really?
JEAN-PIERRE: Peaceful protest. Your core question to me was intimidation and violence.
DOOCY: So these justices, because these protesters do not agree with an opinion they signed on to have no right to privacy is what you are saying?
JEAN-PIERRE: But Peter, people have the right. This is what a democracy is.
Jean-Pierre repeatedly avoided telling left-wing supporters not to harass Supreme Court justices at their homes or in public:
DOOCY: But you never said “Don’t go to their houses” as long as they are peaceful. Would you say “Don’t go to a restaurant” that a Supreme Court justice is at?
JEAN-PIERRE: What I’m saying is we condemn any intimidation when it comes to judges. We have — the President has talked about this and the President has put out statements.
DOOCY: So there are special cases when it’s okay if protesters know that a justice is out to eat at restaurant that they can go and protest as long as they are what you consider peaceful? That’s okay?
JEAN-PIERRE: Well, we have said that we want to see peaceful protests. That’s what we say. We want to see the protests be peaceful. But when it comes to intimidation, that is something we have condemned.
Liberals in the media don’t appear to bothered the wave of pro-abortion terror striking the U.S. A NewsBusters study found that the networks refused to say the name of the terrorist group Jane’s Revenge, an organization that has been targeting pro-life centers with fire bombings and violence.
A transcript of the exchange is below. Click “expand” to read more.
White House briefing
7/8/2022
1:32 PM ETPETER DOOCY: Thank you, Karine. You talked a little bit about privacy today. Does the President think it’s appropriate for abortion-rights protesters to intimidate Supreme Court justices when they are out to eat? Like Brett Kavanaugh who had to sneak out of a steakhouse last night.
KARINE-JEAN PIERRE: We have been pretty clear on this. The President has been very clear. We condemn any intimidation of judges in this specific question here. We have condemned that. We have — He has signed a piece of legislation making sure they have the protection that they need.
DOOCY: But you never said “Don’t go to their houses” as long as they are peaceful. Would you say “Don’t go to a restaurant” that a Supreme Court justice is at?
JEAN-PIERRE: What I’m saying is we condemn any intimidation when it comes to judges. We have — the President has talked about this and the President has put out statements.
DOOCY: So there are special cases when it’s okay if protesters know that a justice is out to eat at restaurant that they can go and protest as long as they are what you consider peaceful? That’s okay?
JEAN-PIERRE: Well, we have said that we want to see peaceful protests. That’s what we say. We want to see the protests be peaceful. But when it comes to intimidation, that is something we have condemned.
DOOCY: So where’s the line? If these protesters can go to a justice’s house and they can go to a restaurant, where is it that you don’t think that it’s appropriate for a group of protesters to go?
JEAN-PIERRE: I just laid out. You asked me about intimidation. We condemn any violence. We’ve been very clear. It is a clear definition of what violence is and intimidation is. Peaceful protests, people should be allowed to be able to do that.
DOOCY: In a restaurant?
JEAN-PIERRE: If it’s outside of a restaurant, if it is peaceful, for sure.
DOOCY: Really?
JEAN-PIERRE: Peaceful protest. Your core question to me was intimidation and violence.
DOOCY: So these justices, because these protesters do not agree with an opinion they signed on to have no right to privacy is what you are saying?
JEAN-PIERRE: But Peter, people have the right. This is what a democracy is.
DOOCY: People don’t have a right to privacy?
JEAN-PIERRE: Of course people have a right to privacy. But people also have a right to protest peacefully. It’s the intimidation and violence that we condemn. Peter —
DOOCY: Isn’t that creating a potentially really bad situation when there are people, even if they are being peaceful at the time, that are angry? And that’s why they would be there. Right?
JEAN-PIERRE: Peter, we condemned any violence.
DOOCY: You said it’s okay to protest at a restaurant!
JEAN-PIERRE: I said peaceful protest should be allowed. We do condemn intimidation. And we condemn any violence, whatever type of violence. We’ve been very clear on that.
DOOCY: So President Biden —
JEAN-PIERRE: And the President has signed — the President has signed legislation that was passed in a bipartisan way in Congress to make sure the judges have the protection that they need. We — this administration — has provided U.S. marshals through the DOJ to make sure these judges are protected. So we have shown how we want to make sure that intimidation and violence is not the way to go. It is not the way to have a political discourse. I’m done here, Peter.
