Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy recently incited laughter at a White House press conference when questioning press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on comments Biden made about the “real governor” of Virginia.
For context, President Biden made the comment in question during a recent Virginia abortion rights rally which he opened by addressing former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. “Hello, Virginia, and the real governor, Terry McAuliffe!” Biden said.
“Is election denying a joke now?” Doocy asked KJP, suggesting Biden’s comment indicates that he doesn’t view Republican Governor Glen Youngkin’s election win as legitimate. “What do you mean? You have to say more than just to make a random statement,” KJP hit back.
“Why did the President say, ‘hello Virginia and the real governor, Terry McAuliffe’”? Doocy clarified his question. “He was making a joke about Terry Mc — he was making a joke,” Jean-Pierre claimed. However, Doocy was unsatisfied with this answer, repeatedly asking, “What’s the joke?”
According to the press secretary, “He was — I mean, if you play it back, it’s clearly that the President was making a joke … He was making a joke about McAuliffe’s previous term as governor.” Doocy continued asking questions before being cut off, “How are guys going to convince people, though, that this idea of denying election results is very bad if President Biden is going out…”
KJP interjected, “Okay. He did not deny. He did not deny it. He congratulated Governor Youngkin. Matter of fact, uh, when he won his election, he did it out of the gate, out of the gate. Really. Truly. He, he congratulated the governor and not only that, we have had opportunities to work closely with the governor and — over the past couple of years, and, you know, this is a President that works across the aisle. We’ve seen that many times, and he was making a joke.”
Doocy and Jean-Pierre have an extensive history of sparring back and forth with each other at White House press briefings. Watch a clip of Doocy’s pressing questions regarding Biden’s comments about former Gov. Terry McAuliffe below:
During the same press conference, Doocy also pressed KJP on the border ongoing border crisis, where millions of illegal immigrants have poured into the country under President Biden. Doocy called out that there are approximately 800 “gotaways” at the southern border every day, asking KJP if Biden has an intention of locating these illegal immigrants in the American interior.
“So here’s what I will say — is that, um, the President — one of the reasons that the President is having these negotiations, procedures or process with the Senate, with both Republicans and Democrats, as I’ve said many times before, is because we want to deal with what’s going on at the border. He’s taking this very seriously. Um, he’s — he wants to make sure that we come up with a bipartisan agreement and we are very appreciative for that. But there’s also the diplomatic aspect of it, of making sure that we’re having conversations with Mexico and we have had and we’ve had productive conversations with them. And DHS is maximizing — they are maximizing its enforcement efforts. And since May 12, and you’ve heard me say this as well, DHS has been able to return more than 482,000 individuals who did not have the legal basis to be here. So, we’re doing what we can right at the border, right? DHS is doing maximizing their process, doing what they can at the border. But we need help, right? We need Congress to actually act and do their part as well and we’re having those negotiations and we’re having those processes. I cannot speak to the 8,000 — the 8,000 number you just provided to me. What I can speak to is what we’re trying to do on the policy side and the funding side to make sure that we — the Border Patrol — of the law enforcement on the ground, have what they need,” KJP said in her lengthy answer.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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