Karine Jean-Pierre isn’t playing games. The White House Press Secretary made clear Friday she is done indulging the provocative, time-wasting questions coming from Fox News’ Peter Doocy.
For over a year the Jen Psaki-Peter Doocy show seemed to serve a purpose. Doocy would ask a ridiculous question that furthered Fox News’ slant, getting him airtime on the right wing cable entertainment channel, and Psaki would patiently respond with actual facts, endearing her to the left, while getting the White House’s message out to Fox News’ right wing viewers.
Toward the end of her time behind the press briefing room podium it was becoming clear that arrangement was no longer working, especially after President Joe Biden criticized Doocy as a “stupid son of a bitch” during a press conference in response to a question Doocy inappropriately shouted.
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Even before she became White House Press Secretary, Jean-Pierre took a much firmer stance with Doocy. That position was in full force Friday, when Doocy asked, “Why is the Biden administration building a border wall in Arizona?”
Jean-Pierre appeared prepared with an answer – including with a dig at Donald Trump.
“We are not, we’re not finishing the wall,” she replied. “We are cleaning up the mess the prior administration left behind in their failed attempt to build a wall. And I just want to be very, very clear here: On day one we returned the money, the $8 billion the prior administration took from our military. We gave that back to the military, for military families, for schools for bases. That’s what that money was being used. That’s what it was taken away from. And so again, what we’re doing is cleaning up the mess that the prior administration has done.”
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Doocy, as usual, pressed further.
“But President Biden when he was a candidate said, ‘there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.’ So what changed?”
“We are not finishing the wall,” Jean-Pierre reiterated.
Ignoring all her answers, Doocy again pressed on, this time with an apparent conspiracy theory.
“If walls work in that part of Arizona, is this, is the administration trying to get migrants to cross somewhere else, like in Texas? What, what is the point?”
“We are not finishing a wall,” Jean-Pierre again repeated. “We are cleaning up the mess that the prior administration made. We are trying to save lives. This is what, this is what the prior administration left behind that we are now cleaning up.”
Undeterred, Doocy again pressed on.
“By finishing the wall is this –” he began to ask.
“We are not finishing the wall,” she again replied, almost smirking.
“By filling in – finishing –” Doocy started again.
” We are not finishing,” Jean-Pierre again said.
“By filling in, is this, is this racist?” Doocy asked. “Because in 2019, when the former guy was proposing a wall, you said that it was his ‘racist’ wall. So how is this any different? I’m just having a hard time understanding how this is any different,” Doocy proposed.
“I’m not even sure how you get to your first question, to this question that you just asked me,” Jean-Pierre replied, “I will say this –”
“A border wall –” Doocy tried to interject, but Jean-Pierre was not allowing any more.
“I’m answering your question,” Jean-Pierre said,, stopping him. “A border wall is ineffective use of taxpayer dollars. So it’s ineffective of taxpayer dollars – dollars that actually went to the military that the last administration, the prior president took from the military, which took away from schools, which took away from military bases. That’s what that money that he pulled away from, to build this wall that he wanted, that is ineffective, by the way, which I just said. Just recently, CBP reported that new bollard fencing along the southwest border was breached 3272 times between fiscal year of 2019 and 2021, requiring $2.6 billion in repairs. It’s ineffective. We are not finishing the wall, we are cleaning up the mess that the last administration made. Okay.”
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