In the first White House press briefing since the failed assassination attempt on former President Trump, reporters from across the spectrum surprisingly took the ever-inept Karine Jean-Pierre to task for failing to state whether President Biden believes he too has to lower the proverbial temperature of our body politic. Along with Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich and Edward Lawrence, they also had cover from ABC, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal.
As usual, the AP led off with Zeke Miller asking Jean-Pierre in straightforward fashion if Biden “regret[s] anything that he has said in the course of this campaign about his Republican rival or anybody else in the political space” and, if not, was his call Sunday to soften the rhetoric merely “a call for other people to make changes”.
Jean-Pierre predictably meandered and sputtered her way through, insisting Biden has always been against political violence and his rhetoric has been focused on “disagreements on agendas”:
AP’s @ZekeJMiller: “And then, lastly, the President last night said it's time for everyone in the political space to tone it down to cool the political rhetoric. Does the President regret anything that he has said in the course of this campaign about his Republican rival or… pic.twitter.com/sInRM3uRCE
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 15, 2024
Miller tried again on any “regret[s]”, but Jean-Pierre doubled down with her change of topic to Biden having been “against violence” and that “it is a moment that we can come together” behind him.
ABC’s Elizabeth Schulze recited Biden’s most recent rally before the shooting, calling him out for having said Trump was “a threat to this nation”, so she wanted to know if that would change. Yet again, Jean-Pierre refused to say if Biden would stop referring to his opponent as such an existential threat:
ABC’s @ESchulze: “Just last week in Michigan, President Biden called Trump a threat to this nation. Should we expect that he will not be calling out Trump with that kind of rhetoric going forward?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 15, 2024
KJP: “So, what I will say is that it is important, right — we believe it's… pic.twitter.com/1RVOoJOV8p
Bloomberg’s Jenny Leonard kept after it, asking a different way if Biden believes Trump needs to change his ways. Even then, Jean-Pierre didn’t deviate.
A few minutes later, Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich admitted she would be asking about this topic:
JACQUI TIME, PART 2: “[A]re we going to continue to hear the President in official events or on the campaign trail, use the phrase threat to democracy, specifically?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 15, 2024
KJP: “I want to be very clear. The President's always going to denounce violence — forcefully delounce [sic] —… pic.twitter.com/SEwH83JUEc
Heinrich had a biting follow-up, noting any change in tone “could be really hard to do” since “the platform of this administration, of his campaign…is that Trump and the MAGA Republican agenda is a threat to democracy.”
Jean-Pierre robotically kept to her talkers about how both sides “have our differences and it’s okay”, so it’s still fair game “to speak to someone’s record” and “character”.
Heinrich asked again point-blank: “Does the President view Trump’s agenda as a threat to democracy?”
By refusing to state no, Jean-Pierre showed the apocalyptic rhetoric would continue (click “expand”):
JEAN-PIERRE: Look, what I will say is, right now, we’re not going to politicize what happened on Saturday. What happened on Saturday was horrific. It was. It was sick, as the President said. And we got to move forward in the way that we respect each other, that we don’t have that —
HEINRICH: [Inaudible].
JEAN-PIERRE: — we don’t have this type of discourse.
HEINRICH: Can you bring us inside the room, though, in a way that you’re — you’re asking to bring down the temperature and have people consider —
JEAN-PIERRE: Mmmhmm.
HEINRICH: — the language that they use in order to dial back where we’re at. So how are those discussions going on inside? Is there reflecting on language that’s been used? What should — what example is the President setting for others?
JEAN-PIERRE: Well, I think the President has set an example. On Saturday —
HEINRICH: [Inaudible].
JEAN-PIERRE: — no, but we can’t also discount what’s happened in the past TWO days, right? We can’t discount what the President did on Saturday, right? We can’t. He — uh — he spoke to the former President. He was briefed by his team. He addressed the American people the same night, right? Came back to D.C. yesterday, he had another briefing with his team. He — right after that briefing, he went into the Roosevelt Room, spoke to the American people, and then used the Oval Office, one of the most important tools to use — important places to make a — to make an — to — to give an important address to the American people in primetime on a Sunday. I think that’s important. He wanted to make sure that he — that the American people heard directly from him, from the President of the United States and also wanted to lay out that we should be able to have differences. Violence shouldn’t be a part of that, right? He wanted to lay that out and say we have to bring the temperature down. That was, that I feel like those three moments that we’ve seen in the last three — three days shows how the President is moving forward. It does and it is lowering — lowering the temperature, saying violence has no part in our — in our democracy in America. And saying it is okay to have differences. He also said that. He also said it’s okay to have differences.
The Wall Street Journal’s Annie Linskey went with another example of incendiary language from Biden as, also in Michigan, he said Trump becoming president would happen “over my dead body” and the prospect of a second Trump term was “deadly serious.”
“[T]hat’s the type of language that we’re — we’re referencing here, and would it be possible to get some sort of indication about whether that kind of language is what we’d expect to continue to hear from the President,” she asked
Jean-Pierre continued her engagement in logical fallacies with answers about denouncing political violence and even tacitly defending such rhetoric because it’s important to draw a contrast with someone’s “character”.
Fox Business’s Edward Lawrence closed out the briefing with another plainly stated question:
FBN’s @EdwardLawrence: “So then, given the language from the leader of the free world, how — does the President or the administration bear any responsibility for the environment that we’re in?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 15, 2024
KJP: “What I will say is — and this is just a re — re — repetition of what I’m saying… pic.twitter.com/7avpkyo8Dy
When that didn’t go anywhere, he tried again: “But…the President from the Oval Office said we have to lower the temperature, but he never said it starts with me.”
The Biden flack was unwavering in refusing to say Biden has a role to play, instead claiming in part that “it takes all of us to lower that temperature, and I think that’s important — that’s important to note”
Before she took questions, Jean-Pierre had this nauseating tribute to NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell as she officially ended her term as White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) president, saying she had “been a great partner” while also “a trusted ally, friend, and leader” to the press corps.
“[I]it has been a joy and I have had — I’ve had the opportunity to know you for some time, even before being at the White House, and I really appreciate it, more personally — uh — your — uh — guidance, your mentorship — uh — in tough times,” she added.
To see the relevant transcript from the July 15 briefing (including USA Today cuing up Jean-Pierre to bash GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance and Voice of America hyping online chatter about the presence of female Secret Service agents on Saturday), click here.
