The Media Research Center is keeping up its nasty narrative of new White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre as an incompetent diversity hire (and, of course, continuing to fluff Peter Doocy).
By Terry Krepel Posted 9/23/2022
The Media Research Center's hateful narrative on new White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is that she's an incompetent diversity hire, and chief hater Curtis Houck made sure to push it again in his biased writeup for the July 5 briefing, while again slobbering over Fox News' Peter Doocy for pushing right-wing talking points:
Holding her first press briefing since June 22, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre showed Tuesday that she hadn’t improved since her cringeworthy opening months in the top post. As part of that, she flailed when grilled by Fox’s Peter Doocy and Real Clear Politics’ Philip Wegmann over a 2018 voicemail from Hunter Biden’s laptop allegedly showing Joe Biden discussed business ventures with his son.
The now-President has repeatedly claimed he “never” discussed anything business-related with his son, so Doocy made sure to frame his question as one seeking comment not only about the voicemail, but the President having now been caught in a lie: “Why is there a voicemail of the President talking to his son about his overseas business dealings if the President has said he’s never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings?”
As NewsBusters has reported, the liberal broadcast networks have completely ignored this bombshell.
Jean-Pierre replied that Biden’s position “stands,” but Doocy wasn’t having it. In turn, Jean-Pierre shut down and insisted she wouldn’t “talk about alleged materials from the laptop” in any capacity[.]
For the July 7 briefing, Houck had a meltdown over a non-right-wing reporter asking a reasonable question about diversity in hiring in the Biden administration -- which he screamed was "INSANE" in the headline, which also attacked Jean-Pierre as "flailing" -- before he got to the Doocy-fluffing:
During Thursday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre found herself facing a mountain of questions about WNBA star Brittney Griner’s unjustified detainment in Russia, but she saw plenty of others with some coming from the left on abortion and diversity and, of course, a helping of Peter Doocy.
Prior to Doocy Time, The Grio’s April Ryan fired off this insanity of a question concerning the vacancy at the top of the Secret Service:
Last question on the Secret Service director. Is equity and inclusion still a part of the President’s hiring practices when he looks at that spot because you have never had a Black man or someone — another color, I guess, be the head of that organization?
Jean-Pierre surprisingly didn’t bite, telling Ryan she won’t “get ahead of the process” even though “this is a President that prides on making sure that we have equity, that we have inclusion” and “an administration that looks like America.”
A few minutes later, Doocy began with gargantuan result out of the new Monmouth University poll:“Why do you think it is that 88 percent of people in this country polled by Monmouth think that the country is on the wrong track?” Jean-Pierre stuck to her cringeworthy talking points, insisting President Biden “understands what the American people are going through,” including the fact that “gas prices are high because of Putin's tax hike.”
After she insisted the White House has “a plan” while Republicans would rather “take away rights from the American people,” Doocy hit her with a reality check: “But do you think it's possible that your plans just is not popular with the American people right now?”
Jean-Pierre not only denied that’s the case, but went down the path of tone-deafness when she tried to simultaneously claim “[w]e understand what” “are feeling” even though “we are stronger economically than we have been in history.”
That anyone at the MRC thinks Griner's detention in Russia on dubious drug charges is "unjustified" is news to us -- and apparently off-message for the MRC. Houck might want to have a chat with the sports blogger he supervises, Jay Maxson, who is cheering how Griner is rotting in a disgusting Russian prison on trumped-up drug charges.
Scott Whitlock did the Doocy-fluffing honors in his writeup of the July 8 briefing:
Fox News journalist Peter Doocy and Karine Jean-Pierre went round and round on Friday as the White House Press Secretary repeatedly refused to condemn harassing Supreme Court justices, like Brett Kavanaugh, eating out at restaurants. At one point she just dismissed, “That is what a democracy is.”
Doocy started off with a fairly straight forward question: “Does the President think it’s appropriate for abortion-rights protesters to intimidate Supreme Court justices when they are out to eat? Like Brett Kavanaugh who had to sneak out of a steakhouse last night.”
Jean-Pierre insisted that the White House is against “violence” and “intimidation.” She didn’t explain how hounding a justice out of a restaurant isn’t intimidation.
Houck didn't explain how Kavanaugh could possibly have been "intimidated" by the protesters given that he never saw or heard them and that they did not threaten violence.
Houck spent his writeup of the July 18 briefing cheering that right-wing reporters pushed their biased narratives -- and, of course, keeping up his malicious incompetence narrative:
During Monday’s White House press briefing (which was the first in six days due to President Biden’s Middle East trip), White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Economic Council (NEC) member Jared Bernstein would have emerged unscathed if it weren’t for tough questions from Peter Doocy, James Rosen, and Philip Wegmann about gas prices, inflation, and the Vice President comparing the end of Roe to slavery.
Wegmann had the first track of this trio, asking Bernstein a simple question of whether there’s “an estimate for how much the administration’s regulatory changes have combated or contributed to regulation — to inflation.”
Bernstein insisted they’ve “been talking about a lot of that already” with “the E15 ethanol waiver” and release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve having been benefits, but he otherwise ignored the question.
[...]
Skip ahead to Jean-Pierre’s latest attempt at trying to not embarrass herself, she did her best “the dog ate my homework” impression as Doocy asked whether President Biden agreed with Vice President Harris that ending a supposed nationwide right to abortion was akin to slavery[.]
[...]
After an exchange on whether Jean-Pierre herself heard President Biden ask the Saudi Crown Prince about the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, Doocy zoomed out: “[U]ltimately, we get back from this trip, there’s no new peace talks in the Middle East, there’s no new commitment to increase oil production in the Gulf, so what was the point of this trip?”
Like the lazy press secretary that she is, Jean-Pierre replied that she “just read out earlier, Peter, of all of the things that had occurred,” including the acknowledgment that the Middle East is “a critical region” worth visiting.
Doocy wasn’t impressed: “Why not insist on a commitment though? He gets back with no commitment, and the price of oil per barrel shot up. Is that what the President wanted, to go there and have the price of oil get more expensive?”
Jean-Pierre again trotted out the line about “34 straight days” of lower gas prices, but Doocy returned fire with the hard truth about how prices remain crippling[.]
For the July 19 briefing, Houck switched tactics and cheered that Jean-Pierre was being hit "from the left" (of course, any reporter who's not as far right as Doocy, Rosen and Wegmann is on "the left" as far is Houck is concerned):
With scorching heat across the globe and the climate change drumbeat ramped back up, the White House press corps acted in kind during Tuesday’s briefing as they repeatedly grilled Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and senior adviser John Kirby from the left by demanding the administration do more to force through their side’s far-reaching agenda.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny went there first, trying to appeal to Kirby’s ego by boasting that he’s “long talked about how climate change is a national security issue for the country.”
[...]
Moving ahead to Jean-Pierre’s portion, the Associated Press’s Will Weissert opened her Q&A with climate: “It doesn’t look like we’ll be getting a climate emergency announcement this week. I want to make sure that’s still on the table and I wanted to ask if the White House has any concerns that the President might be relying on executive action too much.”
The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker was also on the case, plainly stating her complaints:“First, why did the White House decide that tomorrow is not the day to declare a climate emergency?”
After Jean-Pierre said Biden’s “going to do everything that he can to take action” to thwart the “climate crisis” (so thwart the rising seas, stop major hurricanes, etc.), Parker followed up: “If and when it does happen, can you talk a little bit about what specific tools it would then give the administration and what specifically you would use it for and do?”
Houck dished out more hatred of Jean-Pierre in his writeup of the July 21 briefing:
Thursday wasn’t supposed to feature a White House press briefing due to a presidential visit to Pennsylvania, but President Biden’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis meant Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was thrown before the press corps and, like most stays, she stepped on plenty of rakes.
Over the course of the briefing, she failed to answer and scoffed at basic questions about how the President contracted the virus, whether she herself is a close contact, and why the administration has kept Biden’s personal physician from reporters. And worse yet, the questions came from reporters across the ideological spectrum.
The hits came early from a reporter in the Associated Press seat, who had perhaps the most benign question of the briefing: “Where exactly was the President infected?”
[...]
The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker was also in this camp as she inquired about “[w]hat precautions did you take for the person who filmed” a short video of President Biden on the White House balcony updating the public on his positive test.
Jean-Pierre actually answered this question well, saying the person “wore an N95 mask,” was six feet away from Biden, and that it was safe because it was taped outside.
Going back to the nonsensical answers, The Wall Street Journal’s Catherine Lucey drew out a rather silly response when all she wanted to know was Biden’s testing regiment.
Yes, he wrote "regiment" instead of "regimen." If Houck can't get his own words right -- or have a copy editor who can do that for him -- perhaps he's in no position to constantly attack Jean-Pierre's alleged incompetence.
Kevin Tober subbed for Houck on the July 25 briefing:
For the second press briefing in a row, the White House took a beating from reporters due to President Joe Biden’s personal physician hiding from hungry reporters’ questions on the state of Biden’s COVID treatment, recovery, and overall health. You know it's bad when reporters from CBS News, The New York Times, and NewsMax all grilled the White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha on the administration’s lack of transparency.
Due to Biden’s bout of COVID, and the fact that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre can’t take questions from the media without stepping on rakes, Jha was trotted out to handle all questions related to Biden’s illness and other public health-related topics.
Of course, Tober served up the obligatory Doocy-fluffing:
Later on in the briefing, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy brought up the subject again by asking if “this a situation where Dr. O'Connor does not want to come and talk about the President's health or where the President doesn't want Dr. O'Connor talking about his health?”
In response, Jha claimed he’s “spoken both to the President and to Dr. O'Connor on an ongoing basis and neither of them has expressed a preference. Dr. O'Connor at any point has not said he doesn't want to come and the President has not at any point said he doesn't want Dr. O'Connor to come. So, I would say neither of those is correct.”
Proving once again why he’s one of the best reporters in the briefing room, Doocy went after Biden’s photo ops taken during his time in quarantine:
We don't recall the MRC complaining about the obviously staged photos taken by the Trump White House when Donald Trump had a bout of COVID.
Houck returned to attack Jean-Pierre anew over the July 27 briefing by quibbling over the definition of a recession:
Wednesday’s White House press briefing wasn’t smooth sailing for Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (as most if not all are for someone in way over their head) with Fox’s Peter Doocy and a select few others reporters who pressed her on the Biden administration’s disinformation campaign to redefine what a recession is ahead of what’s expected to be a dour second quarter number on Thursday.
Doocy began with the premise that the American Rescue Plan contributed to inflation, but Jean-Pierre wasn’t having it. Instead, she claimed Biden came into office facing a litany of crisis, but he still “turned the economy back on” and created “a stronger labor market” “outside factors.”
Doocy used her answer to then corner her on defining a recession: “If things are going so great, though, then why is it that White House officials are trying to redefine recession?”
Jean-Pierre predictably walked right in to the trap, insisting “we’re not redefining a recession,” leaving Doocy to hit back:
So Doocy is a layer of "traps," not an actual reporter. Got it.
Tober returned for even more Doocy-fluffing over the July 28 briefing:
During Thursday's train wreck known as the White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got demolished by Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy after Jean-Pierre accused Republican governors of using migrants as political pawns by bussing them to Washington D.C. The always floundering Jean-Pierre mumbled and stumbled her way through multiple grillings by Doocy.
The first question out of the gate was whether "President Biden ask[ed] President Xi anything about getting to the bottom of the origins of COVID." Naturally, this simple question completely flummoxed Jean-Pierre who began frantically flipping through her notes in her binder for an answer to Doocy's question.
[...]
Changing topics, Doocy asked "The DC Mayor sent the White House a letter asking for National Guard help with migrants who have been bussed here from Texas and Arizona. Is the President gonna approve that request for the National Guard?"
In response, Jean-Pierre ducked by referring him to the Department of Defense. She went on to whine how "Republicans using migrants as a political tool, and that is shameful, and that is just wrong."
[...]
Doocy shot back: "There’s a process and they come to a big city and now the Mayor says she needs the National Guard?"
Realizing she's running out of non-answers, Jean-Pierre replied: "That’s because Republicans are using, they’re using migrants who are coming here for who knows? Because they’re dealing with humanitarian issues back in their country. They’re coming here for a better life and they’re being used, Peter, they’re being used by Republican governors. That is what’s happening."
Doocy managed to get in one question before she frantically called on another reporter to get out of Doocy's line of questioning: "Does any of this make the President want to say 'this is causing a lot of burdens on small cities, big cities, maybe I should just close the border?’"
Fox News must have given Tober a nice little kickback for spending an entire post fawning over Doocy (and, of course, denigrating Jean-Pierre). He earned another one for even more Doocy-worship the next day:
On Friday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got into another battle with Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy because of her apparent inability to answer simple questions put to her.
The first question from Doocy came in light of comments made by the former chief editor of the Chinese state media outlet the Global Times, who suggested China would shoot down House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane if she visits Taiwan.
This is an extremely serious situation, so Doocy attempted to get a response from the White House: “an official who is associated with Chinese state media is suggesting that if Speaker Pelosi tries to go to Taiwan her plane could be shot down. Does the President have a response to that?”
Jean-Pierre’s response was that this was “something that we’re just not going to speak to” adding that it’s “a hypothetical, we are not we're just not going to speak on her schedule.”
You would think this would be a topic the White House would make a statement about since if China shot down the plane of the woman second in line for the presidency it would lead to a war between the United States and China.
Realizing he’s not going to receive an answer from Jean-Pierre, Doocy switched gears to the news that the Biden administration quietly approved construction of former President Trump’s border wall in Arizona asking “why is the Biden administration building a border wall in Arizona?”
[...]
Doocy came prepared as always because he dug up comments made by Jean-Pierre from 2019 in which she called the border wall racist, and now three years later she’s in an administration that is attempting to finish building part of the wall:
“Is this racist? Because in 2019 when the former guy was proposing a wall, you said that it was his racist wall. So how is this any different? I'm just having a hard time understanding how this is any different” Doocy asked.
Doocy will be happy to have Tober's writeups in his scrapbook.
