On Monday with millions of Americans still recovering from catastrophic devastation caused by Hurricane Helene and more preparing this week for Hurricane Milton, numerous White House correspondents chose to engage in childish and maniacal bashing with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) with false claims about him ignoring calls from Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
In contrast, Fox’s Peter Doocy went to bat for Americans who don’t have time for the petty pontificating and bellyaching from Washington D.C. and wondered why the Biden administration triumphantly announced $157 million in foreign aid for Lebanon as the terror group that runs the country — Hezbollah — wars with Israel.
“[O]n this issue of funding, the administration has money to send to Lebanon without Congress coming back, but Congress does have to come back to approve money to send to people in North Carolina. Do I have that right,” Doocy asked.
Jean-Pierre insisted Harris and President Biden have “had a — a robust, whole-of-government response to [Helene] with “more than $200 million — that we have directly put towards survivors here for the di- — for disaster help, and that’s because of this President’s commitment to make sure that we are there for communities that are impacted” plus “more than 1,500 federal — federal folks on the ground to help.”
She added such invocations of Lebanese aid is “disinformation, misinformation,” and “dangerous.”
Doocy didn’t take too kindly to this nonsense:
But President Biden is fond of saying, “Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value.” If he has got money for people in Lebanon right now, without Congress having to come back, what does it say about his values that there is not enough money right now for people in North Carolina who need it? That’s not misinformation.
Jean-Pierre drew a look of utter bafflement and an “excuse me” from Doocy when she replied everything he said was “misinformation: “Wait. No, that is. Wait, your whole — your whole premise of the question is misinformation, sir.”
The cross-talk was on from there with Jean-Pierre obviously refusing to engage on the merits and consider optics of the Biden-Harris regime’s triumphant funding of a country wracked with terrorist groups amid the Helene devastation was wrong.
She refused to even ponder the bad look of foreign aid going easily out the door while money for American citizens will have to require a reconvening of Congress (click “expand”):
JEAN-PIERRE: What you don’t — yes, yes.
DOOCY: Which part?
JEAN-PIERRE: It’s misinformation.
DOOCY: Did — is there money —
JEAN-PIERRE: I just — I just mentioned —
DOOCY: — to send to Lebanon right now?
JEAN-PIERRE: I just mentioned — I just mentioned to you that we provided more than $200 million to folks who are impacted in the area, and I just shared with you that people are deciding not to —
DOOCY: $157 million is not [inaudible] —
JEAN-PIERRE: — not — no — but people are deciding not to —
DOOCY: 157 million is not [inaudible] —
JEAN-PIERRE: — no — no, but people are deciding not to —
DOOCY: — President Biden sent a letter to —
JEAN-PIERRE: — not — wait —
DOOCY: — Congress that there’s not enough money to help people in North Carolina —
JEAN-PIERRE: We’re talking about the SBA disaster loan. Yes.
DOOCY: — that’s money for people in North Carolina.
JEAN-PIERRE: And that’s important. And people in North Carolina need that. Con- —
DOOCY: The President is the —
JEAN-PIERRE: Wait. This is nothing new.
DOOCY: — one saying it’s running out.
Jean-Pierre put the onus on Congress for more money being needed to care for American citizens: “Peter, this is nothing new. Congress comes together. They provide money — millions of dollars for disaster relief. We’re asking them to do the job that they have been doing for some time.”
Doocy countered he was “reading from a letter that President Biden sent to” the leaders of each parties in Congress saying FEMA needed more funding.
“The President’s letter is not misinformation. Would you agree,” he asked.
Jean-Pierre wasn’t stuck to her script, saying “the way you’re asking me the question is misinformation” before going on with Doocy torching her for choosing to merely “call a question that you don’t like ‘misinformation’” as “[t]hat’s very unfair” (click “expand”):
JEAN-PIERRE: No, the way you’re asking me the question is misinformation. There is money that we are allocating to the impacted areas, and there’s money there to help people who truly need it. There are survivors who need the funding — who need the funding, and it’s there.
DOOCY: You can’t call a question that you don’t like “misinformation.”
JEAN-PIERRE: I said that —
DOOCY: That’s very unfair.
JEAN-PIERRE: I actually said we have the money available to help survivors of Hurricane Helene and also Hurricane Milton. Now, we’re — now, there’s going to be a shortfall — right? — because we don’t know how bad it’s — Hurricane Milton is going to be, and so we’re going to need additional funding. We’re going to need additional funding.
DOOCY: That’s exactly what I just asked about, and you said it —
JEAN-PIERRE: No —
DOOCY: — was misinformation. Yes.
JEAN-PIERRE: What you’re asking me is why Congress needs to come back and do their job. That’s what you’re asking me. Congress needs to come back and do their job and provide extra assistance, extra funding to Disaster Relief Fund. That’s what Congress needs to do, and we’re going to continue to urge that. You may not want that, but that’s okay. That’s what this President wants, and that’s what the Vice President wants.
Before that blowout, he congratulated Jean-Pierre on her promotion to Senior Adviser (as reported by the Biden-Harris’s North Korean news lady, Mary Bruce) and asked about the man the U.S. gave back to Russia for WNBA player Brittney Griner: “[T]he arms dealer that President Biden freed in a prisoner swap, Viktor Bout, is now, according to The Wall Street Journal, selling weapons to the Houthis. Does President Biden think that is a problem?”
Going back to the DeSantis bashing, the Vice President doesn’t sign off on disaster declarations or be the person to give FEMA permission to release aid and surge assistance to the region. Rather, the President does, but the liberal media have a candidate (Harris) whom they’re working to elect and paint as a Boss Lady.
The AP’s Aamer Madhani, Gray TV’s Jon Decker, and unsurprisingly both ABC reporters in the room Karen Travers and Selina Wang went down this road falsely claiming DeSantis has bungled the response by not being buddy buddy with Harris.
Here were their questions (click “expand”):
MADHANI: And then, finally, there was a report — I believe it was NBC — just as we were coming out, that Governor DeSantis is dodging calls with Vice President Harris and President Biden. Is that an issue? Is — is politics starting to sink into this?
(....)
MADHANI: Is it — but is it accurate that the President and the Vice President have made outreach efforts and they have not been answered?
(....)
WANG: We’re learning that DeSantis refused to take a call from Vice President Harris specifically around Hurricane Milton. Can you just talk about that and any communication around this new hurricane?”
(....)
WANG: Trump and some of his Republican allies have been spreading misinformation about the federal response to Hurricane Helene. So, what exactly is the White House doing to combat that misinformation? And can you just talk about the impact it’s already having on the ground?
(....)
WANG: But is the administration tracking that having an impact on the ground in terms of people being — people not seeking the aid they need because —
JEAN-PIERRE: That’s a concern.
WANG: — is that — is that happening?
(....)
DECKER: [I]n regards to the relationship or — or lack of a relationship between the governor of Florida and the leadership of this administration, does it make a coordinated response to tropical weather that much more difficult if the governor is not speaking to the Vice President or to the President?
(....)
TRAVERS: You used the phrase “incredibly dangerous” a couple times, talking about the misinformation on —
JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah.
TRAVERS: — the hurricane.
JEAN-PIERRE: It is.
TRAVERS: And given how widespread it has been over the past few days and how much of an effort FEMA and the administration has made to combat that, how concerned is the President that what we’re seeing now with this storm is perhaps a preview of the misinformation we might have on Election Day or in the days following that?
To see the relevant transcript from the October 7 briefing, click here.
