Tuesday’s White House press briefing offered a contrast in exchanges as, not long after White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre yuked it up with outgoing NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker as Welker leaves for Meet the Press, Fox’s Peter Doocy grilled Jean-Pierre on President Biden’s age and his refusal to visit East Palestine, Ohio.
Doocy surely grabbed eyeballs when he lead with this question: “President Biden is the oldest President in U.S. history. Why does White House staff treat him like a baby?”
Jean-Pierre scoffed: “No one treats the President of the United States, the commander-in-chief, like a baby. That’s ridiculous. That’s a ridiculous claim.”
Only then did Doocy fully explain the context:
So there’s this book that says — when staff walked back what sounded like a call for regime change in Russia, the President, “rather than owning his failure, he fumed to friends about how he was treated like a toddler. ‘Was John Kennedy ever babied like that?’”
Jean-Pierre offered a shockingly correct answer at first, noting “there’s...always a range of books that are — about every administration, as you know, that’s going to have a variety of claims.”
But after saying “we’re not going to litigate” the ones in this book “here,” she did just that by saying White House staff “did see the excerpt — the context of the excerpt and it seemed to be making the opposite, overall point about how the value of his experience and wisdom resulted in rallying the free world against authoritarianism, which is important.”
Doocy then pivoted: “Why do you think it is in the Wall Street Journal poll, two-thirds of Democrats think President Biden is too old to run again?”
Given the poll’s prominence in the news cycle, Jean-Pierre had a long, canned answer that included her insisting in part that she “can speak to...a President who has wisdom...experience,” and “taken historic action and has delivered historic pieces of legislation.”
Doocy moved onto his final topic, which was wondering how Biden could insist he’s never had a break that he could use to visit East Palestine since not only did it happen back on February 3, but Biden’s gone on multiple vacations with one being in Lake Tahoe (click “expand”):
DOOCY: The President said over the long weekend that he hasn’t had the occasion to go to East Palestine. “I just haven’t been able to break” The derailment was on February 3. President Biden has not had a break since February 3?
JEAN-PIERRE: The President will go to East Palestine. He promised that he would and he will. You saw him —
DOOCY: But was he on — so he was not on a break when he was in Lake Tahoe?
JEAN-PIERRE: I will say this again. The President is going to go to East Palestine as he has said that he is committed to do. You saw him this Saturday visit a rural area — right — that was devastated, some parts were devastated by Hurricane Idalia, and he was there with the First Lady. They were able to hear directly from the American people and he was able to talk about what is it that they need. What is it — what else do they need from the federal government. So, the President is going to go to East Palestine. I don’t have a time or date to announce at this time, but he will go.
In contrast, Jean-Pierre opened her portion of Q&A by paying tribute to Welker, noting how “we were talking earlier and you said you have covered the White House for about a decade” and that, with her move to Meet the Press, “we will miss you and we are incredibly thrilled and excited for you in your new adventure”.
Jean-Pierre laid it on thick as only a liberal spokesperson could for a comrade in the liberal media, even with an allusion to Welker taking the historic step as an African-American woman:
[J]ust for me personally, it is a — it is — it has been a joy working with you and I am so thrilled to have you — to see you in this new world — in this new role that is going to, I think, you know, little girls and boys are going to watch you and hopefully be inspired by everything that you do every — every Sunday. So, as they have been these past 10 years.
Welker was deeply moved: “Thank you, Karine. It has been an incredible honor to cover this administration, the White House for the past decade. So, thank you for that. I really appreciate it. And thank you to all of incredible colleagues here.”
Back in the tough category, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann asked National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan how it’s “fair to a citizen in, say, Scranton” that the Biden administration “wants to increase funding to foreign nations through the World Bank,” when, here in the U.S. “credit card delinquencies [have] spiked,” “mortgage rates are through the roof,” “inflation remains a problem,” and the federal deficit continues to balloon.
Sullivan replied with predictable tone-deafness that foreign spending is necessary seeing as how “the problems that happen overseas don’t stay overseas”.
To see the relevant transcript from the September 5 briefing, click “expand.”
White House press briefing [via ABC News Live subfeed]
September 5, 2023
2:05 p.m. EasternPHILIP WEGMANN: Given that you said bolstering the World Bank is about countering China, in this country, credit card delinquencies has spiked. Mortgage rates are through the roof. Inflation remains a problem. Meanwhile, the federal deficit this year has almost tripled, and the President wants to increase funding to foreign nations through the World Bank. How is that fair to a citizen in, say, Scranton?
JAKE SULLIVAN: Look, I think citizens in Scranton recognize the problems that happen overseas don’t stay overseas. They come here too at great costs to working people. COVID came here from overseas. When there’s massive debt or instability or conflict elsewhere, it has a drag on the global economy, and America is part of the world economy. So, our perspective is that, for a modest investment, from a point of view of the overall size of the U.S. budget to put into ensuring greater stability, greater prosperity, greater capacity in the rest of the world, that is going to end up reducing the costs and burdens on working people in Scranton or Minneapolis or any of y’all’s hometowns. And, frankly, that’s not some novel idea. That has been a bipartisan commitment of the United States for decades. And even the last administration, the biggest skeptic of all of this, made investments in foreign aid because those investments are in the naked self-interests of the United States as well as being the right thing to do.
(....)
2:07 p.m. Eastern
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: I want to say — I want to say congratulations here to Kristen Welker on her last day. We were talking earlier and you said you have covered the White House for about a decade, so — which makes you — what — I don’t know — 30 years old?
KRISTEN WELKER: 30!
JEAN-PIERRE: 30? That’s great. So, with — in all seriousness, we will miss you and we are incredibly thrilled and excited for you in your new adventure in a — in a — in a different Washington institution, if you will. And so, we will be watching. Please keep in touch. And, of course, of course, book our people, as you know. But serious — in all seriously [sic], just for me personally, it is a — it is — it has been a joy working with you and I am so thrilled to have you — to see you in this new world — in this new role that is going to, I think, you know, little girls and boys are going to watch you and hopefully be inspired by everything that you do every — every Sunday. So, as they have been these past 10 years. So, thank you.
WELKER: Thank you, Karine. It has been an incredible honor to cover this administration, the White House for the past decade. So, thank you for that. I really appreciate it. And thank you to all of incredible colleagues here.
JEAN-PIERRE: Alright, Kristen! Go forward!
(....)
2:22 p.m. Eastern
PETER DOOCY: President Biden is the oldest President in U.S. history. Why does White House staff treat him like a baby?
JEAN-PIERRE: No one treats the President of the United States, the commander-in-chief, like a baby.
DOOCY: So there’s this book that says —
JEAN-PIERRE: That’s ridiculous. That’s a ridiculous claim.
DOOCY: — when staff walked back what sounded like a call for regime change in Russia, the President, “rather than owning his failure, he fumed to friends about how he was treated like a toddler. ‘Was John Kennedy ever babied like that?’”
JEAN-PIERRE: So, there’s going to be range — always a range of books that are — about every administration, as you know, that’s going to have a variety of claims. That is not usual. That happens all the time and we’re not going to litigate those here. That’s something that we’re going to speak to. There is one thing that I do want to — cause I think I was asked this question last week by one of our colleagues about this particular excerpt that they were referring to and so, I’ll say this. You know, we did see the excerpt — the context of the excerpt and it seemed to be making the opposite, overall point about how the value of his experience and wisdom resulted in rallying the free world against authoritarianism, which is important. We have seen this. You all have seen this and passage of the most historic agenda in recent history and handling of the foreign policy like rallying the world around Ukraine as you just heard from our national security adviser who laid out in really good questions that your colleagues asked about how the President is moving forward, about Ukraine, about kind of leading into these conversations that he’s going to be having at the G-20.
DOOCY: Why do you think it is in the Wall Street Journal poll, two-thirds of Democrats think President Biden is too old to run again?
JEAN-PIERRE: Look, here’s what I know. He’s what I can speak to. I can speak to that — a President who has wisdom, a President who has experience. I can speak to a President who has done historic — has taken historic action and has delivered historic pieces of legislation and that’s important. When the last guy who was in this — in the Oval Office talked about infrastructure week, it was a joke and the President passed a pretty important piece of legislation in a bipartisan way because of his wisdom, because of his experience and now, we have infrastructure decade. And it doesn’t stop there. It stops — last week we talked about how the President beat big pharma. Something that elected officials and politicians have been trying to do for 33 years and he’s been able to do that and we introduced ten — the first traunch — the first ten drugs that Medicare can now negotiate on — right — and it’s going to save money for our seniors, for Americans across the country. The gentleman that introduced the President, Steven, who’s 71 years old, paying $16,000 a month, $16,000 a month, just to stay alive because he had cancer and diabetes and he cannot retire because he’s — because he has to pay $16,000 a month. And because of the work that this President has done, he doesn’t have to do that anymore. And I’ll say one last thing I know you have a follow-up, probably about five more, but let me just say this one last thing. The interesting thing about this is that the President has done these historic pieces of legislation, whether it’s the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, whether it’s the American Rescue Plan, whether it’s Chips and Science Act, whether it’s the Inflation Reduction Act. There are some Republicans, right, in the House, in the Senate that did not vote for any of these legislations [sic] that I just laid out who go back to their state, go back to their district, and take credit for something that the President did. So, this is not unusual, they did this in 2019, they did this in 2020 and the pres — they did this in 2022 and the President continues to prevail.
DOOCY: Okay. Just one more.
JEAN-PIERRE: Sure.
DOOCY: The President said over the long weekend that he hasn’t had the occasion to go to East Palestine. “I just haven’t been able to break” The derailment was on February 3. President Biden has not had a break since February 3?
JEAN-PIERRE: The President will go to East Palestine. He promised that he would and he will. You saw him —
DOOCY: But was he on — so he was not on a break when he was in Lake Tahoe?
JEAN-PIERRE: I will say this again. The President is going to go to East Palestine as he has said that he is committed to do. You saw him this Saturday visit a rural area — right — that was devastated, some parts were devastated by Hurricane Idalia, and he was there with the First Lady. They were able to hear directly from the American people and he was able to talk about what is it that they need. What is it — what else do they need from the federal government. So, the President is going to go to East Palestine. I don’t have a time or date to announce at this time, but he will go.
