White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has failed continuously to properly answer reporter's questions on how President Joe Biden has handled classified documents, especially but not limited to when it comes to Fox News' Peter Doocy. Tuesday's press briefing was no different.
How many times does KJP dodge Peter Doocy’s questions in this clip? pic.twitter.com/yN64EkDR4I
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 24, 2023
In no less than 14 times during Tuesday's briefing alone, Jean-Pierre's response to reporters asking about the issue entailed her saying "I would refer you to the White House Counsel."
Speaking of Doocy, Jean-Pierre gave him this response four times. When Doocy mentioned that "in the president's own words he admits to having information that wasn't his" and asked "why did he smuggle it out," Jean-Pierre gave a slightly different but nevertheless unsatisfactory response. "I will let the--the statement of the president stand for itself. I'm just not gonna go into a rabbit hole, down a rabbit hole with you on this." She thus refused to answer any of Doocy's legitimate and burning questions that are no doubt on the minds of so many others.
As Jean-Pierre went to call on another reporter, a female reporter could be heard calling out to ask "why did he not tell you about it for months?"
Among Doocy's legitimate questions, which again, did not receive any kind of a proper response, included to point out that "after a special counsel was named but before the FBI searched, President Biden went to his house in Wilmington" and ask "what was he doing in there?" He asked Jean-Pierre for a follow-up in an attempt to confirm "so, it was something relating to this case," to which she again gave the same answer of merely referring Doocy to the White House Counsel's Office.
In a more compelling, deep-dive kind of question, Doocy also brought up the possibility that someone had leaked it. Some have even offered it's a fellow Democrat. "Do you think that this story was leaked by someone trying to bruise the President politically ahead of a reelection announcement," he asked, only to be told again by Jean-Pierre that she would refer him to the White House Counsel's Office, adding it's because "they have been the ones who’ve been
closely involved."
Jean-Pierre also refused to answer for when Doocy pointed out "okay, more basically, we know the president did it. Why did he do it?"
She again responded she would refer him to the White House Counsel's office before taking his next and last question during which she accused him of involving "going... down a rabbit hole."
On a related note of classified documents, it had been revealed on Tuesday that classified documents had also been found at former Vice President Mike Pence's home, too. Jean-Pierre similarly refused to comment on that. In addition to referring reporters to the White House Counsel's Office, she doubled down on how the situation with Pence was something she just couldn't comment on.
When asked by a reporter if the White House believes that "that other former high office holders should now go back and check their personal residences out of an abundance of caution to make sure that they’re not holding on to classified documents as well," Jean-Pierre, in addition to mentioning she couldn't comment, added "I don’t even--we don’t--don’t even know the--you know, the reasoning of what the news that we heard about Pence."
REPORTER: "Was the White House, before this afternoon, that classified documents had been found at Vice President Pence's residence...?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 24, 2023
KJP: "I don't even know the reasoning of what the news that we heard about Pence." pic.twitter.com/eyEVwFsG3r
A particularly glaring difference between the discovery of Biden and Pence's classified documents is the timeline. The president's were found on November 2, 2022--one week before the midterm elections where Democrats performed better than expected--yet the news story did not break until earlier this month, over two months later. Pence's had been discovered last week, on January 16, with CNN--which has certainly had their own noteworthy narrative on Biden's documents--exclusively reporting on the story on Tuesday.
Also on the issue of Pence, a reporter asked if the White House had "any reflections among the communications and press staff here as to how the Pence team handled it versus how you guys handled it?"
While Jean-Pierre claimed to "understand your question, and I hear it," her non-response did not reflect that she did. "We’ve had--we’ve answered your question in many different variations. I’m just not--don’t have anything else to share from here."
With regards to the "ongoing legal matter" she referred the reporter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and again to the White House Counsel's office" for "anything else."
As was the case with when Doocy asked his question, a female reporter called out to ask "why did you not talk about it for two months," though she went ignored.
In other words, Tuesday's press briefing was exactly what we can come to expect from the Biden administration, more gaslighting from a press secretary who claims to be transparent but has been anything but.
REPORTER 1: "Any reflections...how the Pence team handled it versus how you guys handled it?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 24, 2023
KJP: "We've answered your question in many different variations..."
REPORTER 2: "Why did you not talk about it for two months?" pic.twitter.com/LiRYJ7Wk8F
Join the conversation as a VIP Member