White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre had another one of her moments during the Wednesday, October 30, White House Press Briefing. This time, it was sparked by a spat over President Joe Biden appearing to have called supporters of former President Donald Trump “garbage,” an awful comment that KJP tried to claim he didn’t make.
She was asked, “Yeah, can you just address the president’s comments yesterday referring to a Trump supporter as “garbage”? And I know he’s tried to clarify that he was trying to talk about what the person said. But, one, I guess I’m — I want to know, does he think less of Americans who support Trump than he does of those who do not? And, two, why is he using that kind of rhetoric? How is that presidential?”
She first claimed that the comment was misinterpreted, saying, “So — so, a couple of things — couple of things. So, just to clarify, he was not calling Trump supporters garbage, which is why he put out — this is why he wanted to make sure that we put out a statement that clarified what he meant and what he was trying to say. And so, just want to make that very clear for folks who are watching. And I’ll — and I just want to read that out to folks. So, he was — regarding to the comedian, and I quote, ‘I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage, which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments’ — the comments — ‘at the rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.’”
Continuing, she snapped, “And to your question — your other question that you asked, no he does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage. That is not what he views. The president has said this for more than three years now. He has said multiple times that he is a president for all. It doesn’t matter if you live in a red state. It doesn’t matter if you live in a blue state. He has said this himself. I have said it on his behalf. He believes that he’s a — a president for all, and it doesn’t matter who you voted for. It doesn’t matter if you voted for him or not. He’s a president for all, but hateful rhetoric — hateful rhetoric that he hears — and this is something that we’ve done many times from here — we will call that out. We will call that out. And that’s what the president said.”
The reporter wasn’t having it. He asked, “Is he — does he have any regret for not being more — his — his language was not specific. It came out — if you were listening to that video, it —” KJP fired back, cutting him off, “I was in the room. Aamer, I was in the room.”
Then, after some more back and forth, she said, “I’m just telling you that I was in the room.” He again asked about the matter and said, “If you were listen- — but if you were any sort of normal person listening to that video or looking at the clips online, you could come to the conclusion that he was calling, at minimum, this one man ‘garbage’ or not — if not all Trump supporters ‘garbage.’”
Later, when the same reporter asked if Biden regrets having clouded the hSo, look, the president wanted to clarify because he understood that what he may have said was being — he understood that what he was saying was being taken out of context, so he wanted to be very, very clear about what he was trying to say. And I just read that out mult- — once over. You all have the — have the — have the — the tweet, or, you know, the statement that’s on X. If you want to read it right now, feel free to do so.
She added, “And he was talking about hateful rhetoric. And we’ve called out hateful rhetoric from here. We have. Obviously, this hateful rhetic — rhetoric was about a particular co- — community — a community that — the Puerto Rican community; they are Americans. They — this is somebody — this is a community that he respects, and he wanted to make sure he called that out. And hateful rhetoric should be called out. It should be. And — but at the same time, the president is a president for all; he will continue to do so. He will continue to serve for everyone.”
Watch her here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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