The Psaki Show took a break on Wednesday from the White House Briefing Room and instead gave way to a guest episode led by her top lieutenant in Principal White House Deputy Press Secretary and former MSNBC contributor Karine Jean-Pierre. Naturally, this led more than a few liberal journalists and pundits to wax poetic about her becoming the second Black woman to lead a briefing and the first lesbian to do so.
In other words, it was quite the day for the liberal media and their never-ending guest to play diversity bingo.
The briefing itself was fairly routine, but ABC senior White House correspondent Mary Bruce gleefully asked “a personal question” about how Jean-Pierre’s “presence here today is making history,” so she wanted to know “if you could share your reflections with us.”
Jean-Pierre twice thanked Bruce “for the question” and spoke for a few minutes about how “it’s a real honor” and while she “appreciate[s] the historic nature” of her position, it’s “not about one person.”
Instead, Jean-Pierre boasted what matters was “what we do on behalf of the American people” with President Joe Biden having “the most diverse administration in history.”
And to tickle the fancy of some reporters, she insisted Biden press secretaries would “be truthful,” and “transparent, and that’s the way I believe the President would want us to communicate to the American people.”
As our friend RedSteeze tweeted, PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor, Bruce, and CBS’s Weijia Jiang were beside themselves in adoration despite the fact that her making history was the same tact as they took with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in downplaying Richard Grenell’s tenure as acting DNI.
Speaking of Alcindor, she appeared on MSNBC a few hours later and reminded us why she’s not a journalist but instead an avowed partisan playing with taxpayer dollars.
Alcindor gushed that the briefing “was a history-making moment” and was heartened by it as the room “felt different” after “four years” of what she saw as foul “language” and “targeting” by former President Trump and his press secretaries.
Of course, Fox News’s Peter Doocy wasn’t a part of this fan club and first asked about inflation fears, citing J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon (click “expand”):
DOOCY: First on the economy, and concerns about inflation. The J.P. Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, warned today that we are going to have more inflation, less productivity, and slower growth if future federal spending, administration spending, isn’t done productively. The federal government, not historically known for efficiency. So, can you guarantee there’s not going to be any waste in the possibly $4 trillion more of spending in the next couple months?
JEAN-PIERRE: So, let me first step back for a second. When we think about the inflation and we think about where we are currently — look. The President plan — the President’s plan is working. We are growing the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, faster than any time in the last four years. We’re creating an average of 500,000 jobs a month, up from 60,000 a month before he took office, before this President took office and if you look at unemployment insurance claims, they are down, and Americans have much needed money in their pockets, thanks to the American Rescue Plan. So we’re going in the right trajectory, right? We’re looking at the trend, and the trend is going in the right way and, you know, this is a president who understands about making sure that we’re not wasteful. Right? Making sure that he was the — when we think about when he was the Vice President, he overlooked that stimulus recovery package back then, and so he made sure there was no — no corruption and no waste and so, he understands how this all works, and he has a team that will be on top of this as well.
DOOCY: And I know that one of the big things for him is not to raise taxes on anybody that makes less than $400,000 a year, but if there is inflation because of wasteful spending or any other reason, and everything is more expensive for everybody, is there a concern that that could be a tax on the poor, effectively?
JEAN-PIERRE: So, I just want to make — be really clear about the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan proposal. Look, both of those plans will create job opportunities for all Americans, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, invest in research and development, and educate our children, and combat climate change. So, these plans that we’re talking about is actually an investment in our country, an investment in people, an investment in families that we need, we have long needed, even before we saw what the pandemic has done to everyday Americans.
Doocy also went back-and-forth with her over the Biden administration’s sudden about-face on having a U.S. intelligence assessment and investigation into how the coronavirus began in Wuhan, China.
To their credit, Jean-Pierre faced a litany of questions on this subject and particularly why there was a flip-flop after Psaki’s repeated insistence they would continue supporting probes on a global scale.
Along with Doocy, reporters who aggressively pushed on this included NBC’s Peter Alexander, CNN’s Phil Mattingly, The New York Times’s Michael Shear, Spectrum News’s Taurean Small, and AFP’s Sebastian Smith.
Fast-forward to Wednesday night and ReidOut host Joy Reid welcomed on Jean-Pierre as her dear “friend” and said she would “lose objectivity” in talking about how she’s “so proud of” her and “was elated watching you.”
Reid made sure to also remind viewers of her deep-seated hatred for non-liberals throughout the interview, which caused Jean-Pierre to remind her that Republicans are engaging in “good faith” on issues like infrastructure with Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) on policing.
Here’s a sample of the drivel (click “expand”):
REID: As Republicans across the country continue their steady and strategic assault on our democracy, Republicans on Capitol Hill are working diligently as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell put it on stopping this new administration. Infrastructure talks between the White House and a group of Senate Republicans are sputtering. Meanwhile, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott told the PBS NewsHour that congressional negotiators have just three weeks to deliver a deal on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. What he left unsaid is whether he can deliver ten Republican senators to vote for the bill. Earlier today, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made history when she took to the Briefing Room lectern to take reporters’ questions about many of those very issues. She's the first openly gay white house woman and the first black woman to hold the podium since Judy Smith, deputy press secretary to George Herbert Walker Bush and the inspiration for the Olivia Pope character on Scandal. And guess who showed up at the White House today to give her congrats in person? Judy Smith herself. That is pretty cool. And joining me now is White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Okay, Ms. Karine Jean-Pierre —
JEAN-PIERRE: Hey, Joy.
REID: — my friend, hey!
JEAN-PIERRE: Hey, friend!
REID: I am so — I'm going to lose objectivity for just one minute and say I'm so proud of you.
JEAN-PIERRE: Aw, thank you.
REID: I have known you so many years. You were always one of our favorite guests on AM Joy and became a friend and I just was elated watching you today.
JEAN-PIERRE: Aww.
REID: The yellow dress? Popping. You did a great job. Fabulous. I know your mom is super excited, but —
JEAN-PIERRE: Thank you. Yes. And you’ve met my mom, so you know how she is.
REID: Yes, I have. She's adorable. Well, between you and Kristen Clark who today was finally, you know —
JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
REID: — she's the first black woman to head the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. History made all around. I just want to give one second to say, how — how do you take that in making that history?
(....)
REID: Well, you used the b-word, bipartisanship. And here’s the challenge, I think, Karine, that a lot of those of us observing what's happening in Washington have. Whether it is S-1, trying to secure voting rights against a Republican Party that's really anti-democracy at this point, that's pro-sedition, that is — that is backing up what happened on January 6th. And then, whether it's infrastructure, which you think everyone could agree on infrastructure and wanting to rebuild our country. You could go on and on down the list. Republicans are not coming to the table. They're not. They don't want do anything that would enhance or help President Biden move forward. So, you have Joe Manchin on the other side saying, I can't get rid of the filibuster. He’s going to stand up for the filibuster more than he is voting rights, more than he is for really anything.
JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, so, a couple of things.
REID: Is the White House —
JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, um-huh?
REID: — realistic about whether your agenda can get done when you have an anti-democracy party and you have Democrats who are more concerned about the filibuster than about progress?
MSNBC’s fawning over one of their own was made possible thanks to advertisers such as Roman, Tractor Supply Co., and USAA. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
