Tipsheet

Watch a Reporter Shut Down Jen Psaki Over the Border Crisis and COVID

I can’t believe this, but I guess we should soak it all up because this will probably not happen again for a bit. The liberal media actually placed pressure on White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. It was a slew of issues. From COVID to Cuomo, Psaki was on her heels and it wasn’t just Fox News’ Peter Doocy doing all the work this time. Doocy shut down Psaki over the growing border crisis. Migrants testing positive for COVID are being released, placing border towns and localities at risk. The Fox News reporter noted that these migrants have an infection rate twice the national average. Psaki told Doocy he should refer to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection numbers, to which the reporter said these are their numbers. NBC News’ Peter Alexander commented that maybe this administration should credit Donald Trump for the COVID vaccines. We have three of them, thanks to Operation Warp Speed—a Trump initiative. Also, Alexander added that if the border is indeed closed, shouldn’t Biden be the one to make that declaration. Now, we know the border is not closed. Our own Julio Rosas is there right now, and it’s a mess.

Last, the Associated Press tossed another question that I’m sure also irked Psaki, or at least made her want to run for the hills, which is what the White House’s position on whether New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should step down. The days in which liberal and conservative media unite to ask fairly simple and fair questions are rare. Enjoy. Newsbusters clipped the entertainment:

Doocy started with the border, noting that Psaki had said moments beforehand about leadership starting “at the top” and using that to note that “you're talking about leadership from Ambassador Jacobson and many others getting the word” out about the border being closed, but President Biden has been nowhere to be found.

Psaki bristled at that notion, lecturing Doocy about “we’re all about facts” inside the room and thus Doocy was wrong because of Biden gave an interview on February 26 to Univision and “would look for opportunities to continue to deliver that message clearly himself.”

Undeterred, Doocy shifted to COVID testing at the border and wanted to know what “the federal government is doing...to protect the citizens of a town like Brownsville, Texas” as, according to one batch of testing, there was a nine percent positive rate among illegal immigrants (and “more than double the national average”).

Psaki said she wasn’t “questioning the data,” but proceeded to do just that and offered word salad about health guidelines for border apprehensions. This led Doocy to point out they were guidelines and don’t really prevent someone from “go[ing] off to wherever.”

Later, Doocy pointed out that Biden “wants a majority of schools opened by his 100th day in office,” but all U.S. adults become eligible for the vaccine the very next day, so he asked: “[W]hy just the majority of schools as the goal instead of a specific, high percentage or, say, all schools.”

Doocy’s supporting cast arrived well before he got his turn. CBS News Radio’s Steve Portnoy grilled National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on illegal immigration citing Biden’s own words about border surges in 2014…

[…]

The Associated Press’s Jonathan Lemire led off Psaki’s Q&A with not one but two Cuomo questions on whether Biden “believe[s] the governor should resign” and then whether “the White House still [has] faith in Governor Cuomo if he remains in his position, overseeing the response to the pandemic in the state of New York.”

On both, Psaki took the easy way out, refusing to deviate one iota from her previous talking points, thus giving tacit public approval from the Biden administration for Cuomo to stay in office.

And we shouldn’t forget that the Associated Press also torched State Department spokesperson Ned Price for trying to take credit for Trump-based foreign policy initiative regarding Russia last month. Still, the liberal media will revert back to factory settings and go about running interference for this administration. It’s what they do when a Democrat is in the White House.