During the White House Press Briefing on Tuesday, April 9, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged a question about extremist remarks made at a Dearborn, Michigan, “International Al-Quds Day.” Shockingly, KJP refused to say if Biden would issue a statement condemning the “death to America!” and “death to Israel!” chants of the protesters, or even say if President Joe Biden would release a statement on the matter.
As background, during the event in Dearborn, activist Tarek Bazzui called on the crowd to pray for “the victory of the resistance” and referred to “the resistance fighters [who] engage in battle with this godless, satanic cancer that is called Israel.” Bazzi continued, stating that “the chant, ‘death to Israel,’ has become the most logical chant shouted across the world today.”
He then called on the crowd to “turn back to the real Islam…That Islam that taught the resistance to prepare whatever strength and whatever weaponry it can in order to confront and to deter the enemies of Allah.” That crowd of hundreds then began chanting, in Arabic, “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”
Predictably, KJP was asked about the event during the Tuesday press conference, after the video of the chant went viral. “Thank you, Karine. A couple days ago, in Dearborn, there were protesters chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Does the President condemn that?” reporter Jacqui Heinrich asked. KJP said he does, saying, “Yes.”
Heinrich then pressed on if the president is concerned with what the event represents, asking, “Is the President at all concerned that Dearborn is becoming — is facing a risk of becoming a hotbed of any sort of homegrown threats?” She responded, “I — I don’t have any intelligence to share with you on that. Obviously, that’s something that we’re always very vigi- — vigilant about. But don’t have any national intelligence to — to share it with you.” She added, “But obviously, we will condemn any — any violent rhetoric —”
That’s when Heinrich asked, “Will we be seeing a statement —” KJP dodged answering, saying, “we have been very — I mean, you’re hearing from me — right? — you’re asking me a question. I’m answering it. And we’ve been very vigi- — vigilant about — or very consistent about denouncing that type of — that type of rhetoric.”
Not letting her off the hook so easily, Heinrich again asked, “Should we see a — should we expect a statement from the President on that, though? I mean, it was a pretty significant display.” KJP responded with yet another attempt at dodging the question, saying, “I mean, you’re hearing from me. I think that’s important.” She added, “The other part, too, that I do want to be very clear about: You know, peaceful protest is something that the President has also been very, very clear that is important for — to give folks space to peacefully protest. But any type of violent rhetoric, we are going to denounce.”
Watch Heinrich and KJP battle back and forth here:
Featured image credit: screen shot from the embedded video
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