It was another bad day for White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, as Fox News Channel’s White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, showed up ready to do battle and rhetorically bashed her to bits on the issue of crime, which came up because Rep. Cuellar, a Democrat, was carjacked in The Swamp.
Doocy got involved after the Wall Street Journal’s Catherine Lucey asked KJP, “Yeah, has the — does the White House have any comment on the carjacking of — for Representative Cuellar? Has the President reached out to him? And more broadly, does it say anything about safety and crime in the District?”
KJP, in response, attacked the “coverage” of the carjacking more than the carjacking itself, saying, “So, what we saw happen, the — the reporting that we saw happen to the congressman, obviously, was unacceptable. The President did have an opportunity to speak with the congressman today. And we will con- — always continue to speak out against any sort of violence, and we’ve been consistent here in this administration.”
Continuing, she stumbled her way through trying to blame Republicans, saying, “We are certainly grateful and relieved that the congressman was unharmed. And we are thankful to the law enforcement to have reacted so quickly. And — and so, look, this is the President — unlike Republicans — has actually put forth billions of dollars — or has taken action to make sure that there are billions of dollars in his budget every year — and he — and through the American Rescue Plan — let’s not forget, there were billions of dollars in his American Rescue Plan so that local communities and — and the state and federal police as well — law enforcement — were able to make sure that they had the funding so that they can hire more law enforcement — and that was incredibly important to the President — so that they can make sure that their communities were safe. This is something that the President has done and Republicans have not helped.”
She then called on Doocy, who immediately jumped in with a follow up that left her sputtering and trying to defend Brandon’s crime record. “Well, the first follow-up would be: How are you going to blame Republicans for this? Isn’t D.C. run by a bunch of Democrats?” Doocy asked.
KJP, in response, snapped back, “I’m going to speak to what the President has done, right? The President has been very, very straightforward about what he has done to make sure that communities are safe. The American Rescue Plan — not one Republican in Congress voted for it. Not one. There were billions of dollars in that plan, in that — in that act to make sure communities across the country got funding so that they can indeed hire more police officers so that they can keep their community safe.”
She then returned to trying to blame the Republicans for crime despite Democrats largely running the crime-ridden cities, saying, “Republicans had nothing to do with that. They were not involved in that. They decided not to vote on the American Rescue Plan. That’s just a fact.”
Doocy was ready with the next follow-up question, asking, “So, if President Biden’s policies are helping bring crime down, would he be comfortable with somebody borrowing his Corvette and parking it on the street overnight in Southeast D.C.?”
KJP then retreated to her usual spot when arguing with Doocy and refused to give an answer, saying, “I’m not going to get into hypotheticals. I’m just going to get into the facts about what this President has done in this presidency. One thing that were — somebody was asking me about bipartisanship. He was able — as it relates to guns, he was able to come together — right? — we saw Democrats and Republicans come together and have the first piece of gun — anti-gun violence prevention legislation in 30 years. And that’s something that this President was able to do.”
Not letting her off the hook a bit, Doocy asked, “If a member of Congress is not safe on the streets of the nation’s capital, who is?”
She again gave no real answer, saying, “Look, we’re grateful and relieved that the congressman — congressman is unharmed. We understand what communities are going through across the country, not just in D.C. That’s why the President took action very early on in his administration to get the American Rescue Plan done without the help of Republicans. That’s why every time he puts forward his budget, he makes sure there are billions of dollars to deal with crime. That’s just a fact. All you got to look is what the President has been able to do this past two years. There’s always going to be work — more work to be done. But the fact is, the President has taken action.”
Watch them here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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