White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre struggled to answer questions on Tuesday from Fox News’s Peter Doocy about the administration’s priorities.
Given that inflation and economic issues are top concerns for Americans, Doocy wondered why President Biden is leaning into abortion.
“What is President Biden’s top domestic priority now? Is it inflation or is it abortion?” he asked.
DOOCY TIME: "[W]hat is President Biden's top domestic priority now? Is it inflation or is it abortion?"
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 18, 2022
KJP: Biden "is going to continue to talk about issues that matter to the American people, and abortion is one of them...[Inflation] is his number one economic priority" pic.twitter.com/yYZ8uLn3TY
Instead of offering a straightforward response, Jean-Pierre said both are important, clarifying that inflation is “his number-one economic priority.”
Doocy didn’t let up.
“You just said it’s ‘his number-one economic priority.’ We’ve heard the President say inflation is his top domestic priority, but now he’s saying, come next year, his first bill would be abortion related. So is his number-one domestic priority abortion or is it inflation?”
Doocy to KJP: "You just said [inflation's] his #1 economic priority. We've heard the President say inflation is his top domestic priority, but now he's saying, come next year, his first bill would be abortion-related. So, is his #1 domestic priority abortion or is it inflation?" pic.twitter.com/PMMhtwUgD3
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 18, 2022
The press secretary, in a roundabout answer, claimed Biden is “working on the economy every day,” which prompted another tough question from Doocy.
“So you said he’s been working on the economy every day for 19 months. Now Bloomberg economists are forecasting a 100 percent chance of a recession. So how is it that we can be barreling towards a recession and the economy is, as the President says, ‘strong as hell’?
"What we are seeing right now is the job market is strong, the labor force is strong. And that is not what we see usually before — before a recession," she replied. And a lot of that is because of the work that this President has done," Jean-Pierre continued.
DOOCY: "How is it that we can be barreling towards a recession and the economy is, as the president says 'strong as hell?'"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 18, 2022
KJP says that "the job market is strong," "the economy is going through a transition," and highlights Joe Biden's focus on "equity." pic.twitter.com/EZm9ZftXH3