Footage from earlier this year has resurfaced, showing White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre snapping at a reporter for questioning why the Biden-Harris administration is still posting videos on TikTok if President Joe Biden is skeptical of the platform. TikTok previously became a topic of national security given its Chinese ownership amid growing tensions with President Xi Jinping.
In March, the House passed a bill with bipartisan support to give ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the social media platform, approximately six months to sell the U.S. assets of the app or be banned from operating in the country. Biden, who indicated he would sign the bill if it reached his desk, had even made comments during a phone call with Xi Jinping voicing his concern about the app
During the press briefing from earlier this year, Jean Pierre was asked, “Yesterday’s call with President Xi, if President Biden is concerned enough about Tiktok to bring it up on a call with the President of China, why is he and why is the vice president? Why are they still making videos for Tiktok that’s coming out of the campaign?”
“So I would refer you to the wait…wait, that’s…I understand. It is the campaign’s decision. I would refer you to the campaign. We have been very clear. We are not trying to ban Tiktok. We’re not trying to ban Tiktok. We’re talking about a divestment you heard that from the National Security Advisor when he’s been here a couple times at the podium speaking to Tiktok and the legislation and how we’re trying to move forward. It is a platform that we really need to take seriously. Here we’re talking about on national security, and so we’ve talked about not banning divesting, not banning divesting. So we want to be very clear about that,” KJP answered.
Users on social media reacted to the tense interaction between KJP and the reporter, calling out the seeming hypocrisy of the Biden-Harris administration for calling out the platform but continuing to use it. “Now, that’s funny! Talking about our “National Security”. But our President and Vice President are still posting videos. If they were worried about National Security, they would close the border and start mass deportation,” one person said.
Others disputed KJP’s comment that the White House has been “clear” on their stance. “Why does she ALWAYS say “I / we have been very clear” ???? Well spokes person for the White House, obviously you haven’t been “very clear”. Otherwise, the same dang questions wouldn’t be posed to you a half dozen ways,” another person said about the press secretary.
Some users noted that if the President Biden was so concerned about national security they would take measures to secure the southern border. “Is using it when it is a matter of national security taking it seriously?The border is a matter of national security but, in both cases ya’ll don’t care because you hate this Constitutional Republic called the United States of America. Well why don’t you just say that!” another person said.
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Watch the incident below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.