During the White House Press Briefing on Friday, May 17, Fox News Channel White House correspondent Peter Doocy pressed White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on whether the Biden White House believes that professional golfer Scottie Scheffler should be facing 10 years in prison for a “misunderstanding at a traffic stop” while trying to get to his match.
As background, Scheffler, the top golfer on the tour, was arrested by the Louisville Metro Police when, in the early morning on Friday, he needed to get to the course before his tour tee time and attempted to drive around a crash scene. A shuttle bus had struck and killed a pedestrian near the Valhalla Golf Club, causing the crash scene and holding up traffic. Scheffler, when he attempted to go around, was ordered by an officer to stop his vehicle, then grabbed the side of the car as Scheffler drove forward. Scheffler stopped after driving 10 to 20 yards, with the officer dragging along. Now Scheffler faces a decade in prison over the incident.
Doocy then asked KJP about the incident, saying, “What does President Biden think about the world’s number one golfer, Scottie Scheffler, being cuffed and hauled in for a mug shot for what appears to be a misunderstanding at a traffic stop?” KJP told him, “So I’ve seen the reports of Mr. Scheffler’s arrest. I just want to say that our hearts go out to the individual that was killed…”
Doocy interjected, saying “unrelated,” and she fired back, “No, let me finish,” the press secretary pushed back. “In the auto accident that preceded his arrest, obviously, someone did die. Someone was killed [in the crash that] preceded his arrest, that obviously he was not involved in. So, I want to make sure that we share our condolences to that family and their loved ones. Anything else, specifics to his arrest, that would be something for local authorities to speak to.”
Pressing her on the issue, Doocy said, “I think, you guys have spent a good chunk of this week talking about how you don’t want anybody to ever go to jail again for possessing marijuana. Do you think that somebody who was involved in what appears to be a misunderstanding at a traffic stop should be facing ten years in prison?”
She again dodged the question, saying, “We have seen the reports, there’s a process there. We have to let the legal authorities go to their process and how this all works. I can’t comment from here, from the lectern, about something that’s being looked into by local authorities. I’ve got to be mindful about that, but let’s not forget, someone lost their life — obviously that preceded this — but there was an individual that was killed, and there’s a family that’s mourning a death of a loved one. And so we want to be sensitive to that as well.”
Watch them here:
"*" indicates required fields
Doocy’s question was relevant because President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice recently, before the Scheffler incident, moved to reclassify marijuana at the federal level. It did so by filing a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” with the Office of the Federal Register. If pushed through, the reclassification would reduce criminal punishment for the possession and sale of marijuana.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video