Fox News Channel White House Correspondent Peter Doocy once again went head to head with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. As is usual for Doocy, he didn’t hold back one bit, instead going full bore on President Biden and KJP.
That occurred on Wednesday, when Doocy pressed Press Secretary KJP over Biden’s China policy, asking her why Bidne is afraid of Red China. During the brutal, back-and-forth exchange, Doocy argued that his questions were due to Biden’s poor showing when it came to the Chinese balloon and refusal to hold China accountable for its likely creation of Covid-19.
The questioning began with Doocy putting his question plainly, asking, “Why is President Biden afraid of China?” KJP predictably defended Biden’s China stance, saying “The President is not afraid of China.”
She then cut off Doocy before he could elaborate, saying “Did you see — did you see the President last week, when we went to — when we went to — when we went to Ukraine, went to Kyiv? This is not a President that’s afraid of anything. It was a historic trip that many of you said was brave. So, clearly, this is a President that’s not afraid to go to a warzone. He’s not afraid to go there when there’s no military presence on the ground. So, there’s nothing that this President fears.”
Doocy, then pushed back on her response, saying “China flew a spy craft over the U.S. The President didn’t really do anything to China. And according to the FBI director, China may have created something that has killed more than 1.1 million people in this country. And President Biden is not punishing them.”
Predictably, KJP again tried to defend Biden’s China policies, saying that Biden did shoot down the Chinese balloon and claiming that there’s not yet enough data to hold Red China accountable for creating Covid. She ignored there recent statements from even Chris Wray about Covid and that the balloon traversed most of the United States before finally being shot down. Here’s what she said:
So, you’re — you’re giving me two — two things here. So let’s take them in parts. As we talk about the Chinese surveillance — the China surveillance balloon, the President did take that down. And he did it in a way that, as it was on its path, we collected information from it; we protected our national security information on the ground; and we did it in a way that was smart, effective, and also protected the American people. That’s what the President is always going to put forth, is the — is the safety of the American people. So that’s what the President did with that particular issue.
Look, as it relates to — you’re talking about the COVID origins, we’ve been very clear. We’ve been very clear that we need the data, and we need to figure out how to get to the bottom of the COVID origins. And that’s something that the President has said since the beginning of this administration. So, that — none of that has changed.
Doocy didn’t let it go. He kept pressing, asking “But with his campaign, it was all about shutting down the virus and how hard it is for families with an empty chair at the kitchen table because of COVID. If we now know, according to the FBI director, who is most likely responsible for all those empty chairs at all those kitchen tables, why not do more to try to hold them accountable?”
The two then bickered and went back and forth before a very frustrated KJP finally said:
So because he took those actions, he actually helped to save lives. Because he — he took action to make sure that people got shots in arms and put a comprehensive plan in front of the American people and put in the work, we actually were able to get to a place where COVID is not gone, but we now are in a place — we’re in a different place in the pandemic. And that’s because of the President. And that’s because of his leadership.
So, let’s not — let’s, like, be very real about what the President has done over the last two years to take on COVID, to make sure that the economy is growing again, to make sure that we’re really working for the American people. So that’s number one. I want to be very, very clear on that.
Now, to your question about COVID origins: As we’ve known — as we know, we have seen many — many different conclusions — right? — from — from the intelligence community. Some of them have made some conclusion on one side. Some of them have made conclusions on the other side. Some of them say they don’t have enough information. So I want to be also very careful there as well.
And it was because of this President, very early on — the first several months of his administration — he went to the intelligence community and said, “We need to figure out how to get to the bottom of this. We need to figure out how this all occurred.” Because, who knows, we have to try and prevent any future pandemics. So that is the work that this President did.
And it included, clearly, the Department of Energy that has National Labs. And so, now they’re continuing to double down and try to get to the bottom of this.
Our relationship with China has not changed. It is — it is very different — I’m going to be very clear — very different than how we have seen it in the last administration.
DOOCY: "Why is President Biden afraid of China?"
JEAN-PIERRE: "This is a President that's not afraid to go to a war zone!"
DOOCY: "China created something that has killed more than 1.1 million people in this country, and…Biden is not punishing them." pic.twitter.com/oyauXchSlO
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 1, 2023
Featured image credit: screenshot from embedded video
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