Things took an absolutely wild turn during the Monday, October 7 White House Press Briefing when White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre (KJP) got in a sparring match with Fox News Channel Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy over the issue of foreign aid and hurricane aid.
The spat began with Doocy pressing KJP on foreign aid to Lebanon as Americans suffer. He asked, “And on 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?”
KJP stumbled over her words and snapped back, “Here’s what I’m going to be very clear about: The president and the vice president has had a — a robust, whole-of-government response to this. Hundreds of millions of dollars — I said it at the top, 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. We take this very seriously. Again, we take this very seriously. And before — before the hurricane hit, we pre-positioned more — more than 1,500 federal — federal folks on the ground to help.”
She continued, further stumbling over her words and ranting about how much the administration has done, “And so, we have made sure that every state has gotten their storm — requested emergency declaration. They requested it, and we made sure they received it. We’ve taken this very seriously — more than $200 million that we have provided to the impacted areas. And — but instead, people want to do disinformation, misinformation, which is dangerous — which is dangerous, because then it — what that — when — when folks on the ground hear that, they may not want to ask for the help that they need that is there for them — that is there for them. That’s our focus here.”
Doocy wasn’t having it, he fired back, “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 —”
At that point, KJP interrupted him and the two went back and forth over his question and whether it was “misinformation,” with KJP claiming that the entire question was such and Doocy arguing quite the opposite. At one point, KJP even said, “Wait. No, that is. Wait, your whole — your whole premise of the question is misinformation, sir.”
They continued going back and forth, interrupting each other about the amount of money sent to Lebanon as Americans suffer, with KJP saying, “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 —”
KJP then tried foisting the blame for what critics contend is lackluster disaster relief on Congress rather than the administration, saying, “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 then said, as KJP interrupted him, “And I’m reading from a letter that President Biden sent to —Johnson, McConnell, Schumer, and Jeffries. The president’s letter is not misinformation. Would you agree?” She said, “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 fired back, “You can’t call a question that you don’t like ‘misinformation.'”
KJP snapped, 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.”
They then went back and forth more, to which KJP finally responded and ended things by saying, “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.” She then ended the press conference and stormed off, saying, “Thanks, everybody.” Watch their spat and her storming off here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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