Monday was likely the second-to-last White House press briefing and it largely focused on National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan previewing what one could argue was President Biden’s foreign policy farewell address. Thankfully, there was still time for the ever-inept Karine Jean-Pierre, including possibly the final tussle with Fox’s Peter Doocy (aka Doocy Time).
Doocy and Jean-Pierre recognized the moment with some chuckles (and Doocy’s face eventually turning red). Eventually, the video below did turn to policy with a classic Doocy question that was short and to the point. The topic? Who’s the leader of the Democratic Party:
DOOCY TIME: “If I don't see you again —”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 13, 2025
KJP: “I, well, you know.”
Doocy: “— in the briefing, thank you for all that — you could have stopped taking the hard questions years ago, and you didn't, so we appreciate that.”
KJP: “Over two years, my friend, this is — uh — let's say… pic.twitter.com/MsCSP2AU9Y
He reacted to Jean-Pierre’s dodge with a simple follow-up: “So, no leader of the party?” When she said “that’s not what I said,” Doocy laid out the logic: “Well, it’s President Biden and it’s not Vice President Harris and there’s no chair of the DNC, so it’s nobody!”
Jean-Pierre doubled down that she doesn’t believe that, but rather it’s difficult to tell what will transpire between January 2025 and 2028. Doocy’s final question addressed something from a Friday comment Biden made to reporters: “And President Biden says that he’s not going to be out of sight, out of mind. But isn’t that what voters basically said that they wanted — is him gone?”
Jean-Pierre seemed disgusted with his reality, instead telling Doocy that Biden “deserves some respect” and he “has served that long and does it from their heart and soul because they believe this country deserves so much more, they believe that the American people deserve more and has worked day in and day out.”
In contrast, there was this far-left softball from Reuters’s Andrea Shalal that claimed commentary about the severity of the Los Angeles-area wildfires were not only wrong, but possibly a foreign disinformation campaign:
Reuters’s Andrea Shalal: “[T]here’s been a lot of, like, disinformation and misinformation about the response to the California fires. In the case of the Hurricane Helene and Milton, there was some finding that Chinese and other foreign countries were amplifying messages or do… pic.twitter.com/hedJ0TPVgl
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 13, 2025
The Associated Press’s Josh Boak led off Jean-Pierre’s portion with a question seeming to take a dig at Republicans as heartless: “Some Republican are saying that wildfire aid should be tied to increasing the debt ceiling. What does the administration make of that and what are the plans for continuity for people that are wondering about what the next week could hold for them?”
CBS’s Ed O’Keefe invoked Afghanistan to Sullivan after his rosy remarks about the Biden administration’s accomplishments on the world stage:
Biden White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan merely had “challenges and difficulties”....
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 13, 2025
CBS’s @EdOKeefe: “And I didn't hear you mention Afghanistan in your opening at all. How is that going to be addressed in the speech?… pic.twitter.com/eRhoGeZeOD
USA Today’s Francesca Chambers asked Sullivan a similar question that Doocy would later pose to Jean-Pierre, which Sullivan argued is complex given voters often hold multiple views at once and the election arguably didn’t swing on foreign policy:
How do you view Donald Trump's reelection in the context of President Biden's foreign policy legacy? And how, in your view, is it not a rejection by voters of the Biden administration’s both worldview and its robust engagement with multilateral institutions which, by your own admission, has been a cornerstone of President Biden's presidency?
theGrio’s April Ryan had some different ideas about how to use her time. Specifically, she pressed Sullivan on “hate” and artificial intelligence (AI) being racist:
theGrio’s April Ryan asks Biden WH National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan about AI being...RACIST!
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 13, 2025
Ryan: “Jake, going back to AI and a couple other questions, as you're saying that it's a huge national security issue, is there a concern about how it does not — AI is — on the… pic.twitter.com/mdGcD2xhxp
April Ryan: “On the national security front, where do you see hate going in the next couple of months, next couple of years, as we're seeing a change in administrations and a change in attitude?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 13, 2025
Biden WH National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan: “I think hate-fueled violent… pic.twitter.com/quw94TJtBa
To see the relevant transcript from the January 13 briefing, click here.
