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KJP Again Makes Clear We Still Can't Expect a Change from Biden on Lowering the Temperature

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  July 30, 2024 7:15 PM

It's been less than a month since former and potentially future President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. There's been considerable outrage about the failures involved that led to the assassination attempt, as well as the death of Corey Comperatore and other attendees being injured. Among those failures involves how it doesn't look like Democrats, including President Joe Biden himself, have an interest in lowering the temperature.

During Tuesday's White House briefing, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was confronted by a reporter as to how "former President Trump did an interview where he said that maybe being called a threat to democracy was a cause of his being shot," comments he made while on the "Sid & Friends in the Morning" radio show last week. The reporter wanted to know "how would the president respond to that?"

While the reporter certainly asked a fitting question, she was not exactly given much of an answer. Instead, Jean-Pierre took plenty of time to say a whole lot of not much.

"What I will say is the president has always been very clear when it comes to violent political rhetoric," Jean-Pierre began, going for a point she likes to make often, even though Biden isn't exactly "very clear," and even though Jean-Pierre's answers can cause even more confusion. 

"There is no place, no place--uh--here in this country--uh--in our nation for it. He's always spoken about that. He's spoken about that for the past--uh--uh--you know, the past several years throughout his career and--um--you know, right after the attempt--assassination attempt, the president said--he even made an address in the--in the Oval Office and talked about lowering the temperature," Jean-Pierre continued, referring to Biden's remarks that he gave the day after Trump was shot. 

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Not only did Jean-Pierre not exactly answer the question, she even went off topic to discuss the Democrats' favorite issue: January 6. 

"He talked about getting to the bottom--the bottom of this having an--uh--an independent investigation and how important it was to do just that," Jean-Pierre mentioned about Biden. "And, you know, I talked about Charlottesville. We saw how the President spoke against January 6, the day that--um--and I remember this--the day that January 6 happened in 2021, the president was then president-elect. He was supposed to talk about the economy. He took that opportunity to--to denounce what happened 2,000--2,000 people went to the Capital--a mob went to the Capitol, officers, law enforcement officers were harmed. Some of them lost their lives afterwards, and he condemned that," Jean-Pierre continued from there, speaking about law enforcement officers who it was revealed died due to natural causes.

Just as Biden himself did during that July 14 address to the nation, Jean-Pierre referenced attacks against liberals, even though there's plenty of examples of political violence targeting Republicans. 

"He get condemned the political violence and they were doing that because they were trying to overturn free and fair elections. When Paul Pelosi was attacked by a hammer, the president also spoke out about--uh--uh--you know, violent political rhetoric and where we--where we will--um--you know--where--what happened, how horrific that was, and violence has no place. No place in this country."

Jean-Pierre wasn't finished when it comes to such a non-answer, though, as she even further touted Biden's handling of the issue. "So if anything, this is a president has been constantly and proactively called out on all Americans to come together and oppose political violence regardless of our views, regardless of our views.”

With such a complete and utter non-answer, it looks as if Jean-Pierre may have a very short memory, or not be very in tune with what top Democrats have been saying about Trump and continue to say even after that assassination attempt.

There's plenty of examples, but also on Tuesday, the same day as this press briefing, the DNC War Room sent out an email full of hyperbolic language claiming that "Donald Trump Doubles Down on Trump-Vance Ticket’s Promise to End American Democracy."

In addition to claiming Trump has "extreme plans to threaten our democracy," there's an entire section of the lengthy email that reads "Trump has threatened political violence and warned of a 'bloodbath' if he loses in November, and he is vowing to be a dictator on 'day one' if he wins.

The full context of Trump's remarks about a "bloodbath," from a March rally in Ohio makes it abundantly clear that he was talking about a "bloodbath" in the economic sense. He was also clearly joking with his comments on being a dictator on "day one," as he himself later pointed out. 

Jean-Pierre had similarly been confronted by reporters at a press briefing from July 15 during which she also gave similar and thoroughly unsatisfying responses. 

That same day, an interview with Biden and NBC News' Lester Holt aired in which the president even denied he was the one who was engaged in inflammatory rhetoric. 

It's also worth reminding that Biden and fellow Democrats have not merely made such inflammatory remarks about Trump supposedly being "a threat to democracy," but that the president himself made what sounded like a bizarre threat against Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Monday. 

On his way to ranting and raving about the U.S. Supreme Court at the LBJ Library, Biden was confronted by reporters about Johnson's opposition to his reforms, with the speaker calling them "dead on arrival."

"He's dead on arrival," Biden responded, also referencing those very same comments during his actual address.

So much for lowering the temperature.