Things heated up in a spat between Fox News Channel’s White House Correspondent, Peter Doocy, and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre during the January 10 White House Press Briefing. During that event, Doocy held her feet to the fire on questions regarding Hunter Biden and the administration’s illegal immigration policies, ultimately toasting her with a series of questions about Hunter Biden.
But Doocy’s line of questioning began with pointed questions about illegal immigration into America. Particularly, Doocy focused on a school in New York City having students learn from home for a day while it housed illegal immigrants in the gym for a day. It did so because they lived in an outdoor shelter and a severe winter storm was incoming.
Pressing her on that issue and whether the Biden Administration prioritizes illegal immigrants or American citizwens, Doocy asked, “Thanks, Karine. First, a whole high school in New York is having remote classes today because the building was needed to house people who came into this country illegally. So, what is the President’s priority in this case? Is it the migrants, or is it the students?”
KJP, in response, tried to characterize the issue by explaining the temporary nature of the housing matter, saying, “So, let me just — just clear this up a little bit. So, yesterday, New York City informed us that, as a precaution, they would temporarily relocate migrants staying at Floyd Bennett Field to a nearby high school. As of this morning, all migrants have returned to the facility at Floyd Bennett Field. And so, anything specific as to the program and what they decided to do and all of those specifics to that, I would certainly refer you to New York City for any additional questions.”
Doocy, for his part, refused to back down. Pressing her on how the Biden Administration’s border policies were harming Americans, he asked, “But if a working parent had to call out to stay home with their kid today, isn’t this Biden immigration policy literally taking money out of people’s pockets?”
KJP refused to answer the aspect of the question about New York City’s policies and then said, “And as it relates to migrants and what’s happening at the border, look, the President has taken this issue very seriously — very seriously by making sure that, on his first day — which is almost three years — it’ll be — a couple of weeks, it’ll be three years ago that he put forward a comprehensive immigration legislation to deal with what’s happening with the immigration process, obviously, and also the border. And this is an issue that’s been going on for decades. The system has been broken for decades. And the President is the one who has taken action to deal with this while House Republicans do not.”
But the battle between Doocy and KJP didn’t end there. Continuing, Doocy pressed her on the Hunter Biden issue. Opening up that front, he asked, as other journalists laughed, “And Hunter Biden on Capitol Hill today. How big of a headache is that for you?” KJP, refusing to give an answer, said, “Hunter Biden is a private citizen. He is not a member of the White House, as you know.”
The two then battled over the issue, with Doocy eventually asking whether President Biden “does not help him [Hunter] with his business deals, but he does help him skirt congressional subpoenas?” That question got KJP hopping mad and, firing back, she snapped, “That is not even true. That — that is a jump that is — that is incredibly disingenuous in that question. What I will say to you —”
Watch that here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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