White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has had a bad week in terms of the condemnation she's received for not more forcefully calling out anti-semitism during Monday's press briefing. She provided a statement to POLITICO on Tuesday, claiming she mishead a question--although there were many asked that day about the subject.
Also on Tuesday, the NYPD provided an update on hate crime statistics. There had been a reported 51 hate crimes since October 9. Thirty of them were against Jews.
As the New York Post shared:
At least 51 hate crimes have been reported in the city since Oct. 9 — two days after the terrorist group’s unprecedented raid — and 30 of them were against Jewish victims, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a press briefing.
“Of those 51 incidents, 30 of them were anti-Jewish. So, that’s where our increase over the last period is sitting,” Kenny said.
During the same period in 2022, only six anti-Jewish incidents were reported, he told reporters.
Reports of hate crimes had been on the decline so far in 2023 compared to last year – but that number has been on the rise as the conflict rages in the Middle East, according to the police official.
“So for lack of a better term, we are seeing an increase in our decrease,” Kenny said.
“Hate crime is still down, but since the incident in Gaza, there’s been an uptick.”
Monday reporting from The Gothamist also spoke to a disproportionately high amount of hate crimes being committed against Jews. These numbers specifically countered Jean-Pierre's narrative on speaking to the targeting of Muslims:
The NYPD added three anti-Muslim and 20 antisemitic hate crimes to its tallies for the one-week period ending Sunday, according to new data shared Monday with Gothamist.
The new data comes two weeks after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the fighting that has ensued. They bring the total number of reported hate crime complaints against Muslims so far this year to 12, and against Jews to 196, according to the NYPD.
...
Last week, for the period of Oct. 8-15, the NYPD released data showing two anti-Muslim hate crimes and 15 antisemitic hate crimes were added to the department's yearlong tally. The numbers are subject to change because some cases are still under investigation and ultimately could be deemed not to be hate crimes at all.
Additionally, the department has not specified exactly when the additional acts occurred, only that new hate crimes were added to the running tallies during the specified week.
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Bonchie, from our sistersite of RedState, pointed to a screenshot of such reporting in a post over X calling out the Biden administration for such a narrative.
But according to the White House, Muslims face a disproportionate amount of hate crimes. https://t.co/ktjm39SqCW
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) October 26, 2023
Clips of Jean-Pierre expressing concern for Islamaphobia--despite being asked about the rise in anti-semitism--were hit with context from Community Notes. It's not merely NYPD stats for NYC that proved the press secretary wrong.
Upon being asked by a reporter on Monday about the "level of concern right now about the potential rise of antisemitism in light of everything that’s going on in Israel," Jean-Pierre in part claimed "we have not seen any credible threats," going on then address attacks against Muslims. "But, look, Muslim and those perceived to be Muslim have endured a disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks," she continued.
As the Community Notes message points out, "Jews experience over 5 times more hate crimes than Muslims" according to FBI statistics, released in March of this year as a supplemental for the 2021 crime statistics.
After her train wreck of a comment yesterday where she denied the existence of threats against Jewish people, Jean-Pierre opens the press briefing today by saying that anti-Semitism is bad. https://t.co/Kwx5pJXZqR pic.twitter.com/3vwS72m2ui
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 24, 2023
Jean-Pierre still refrenced anti-semitism and Islamophobia in the same breadth during Tuesday's press briefing. The Biden administration and their allies in the mainstream media have also continued to go with such a narrative tying the two concerns together, despite the disproprotionate numbers.
Our friends at Twitchy highlighted such a resonse, pointing out that it may be for strategic purposes. "White House increases outreach to Muslim and Arab Americans in face of criticism to Israel-Gaza war response," read headline from NBC News that led to some quite noteworthy reactions.
If you want to know why campus groups feel emboldened to gather in defense of this, it's because this WH, Democrat Congressional offices and our State Department are all being run in the exact same matter.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 25, 2023
Many weren't exactly satisfied with Jean-Pierre's explanation that she misheard the question. The POLITICO post was full of replies and quoted reposts. In addition to our own reporting at Townhall, Sister Toldjah, also at RedState, put out "Biden WH Digs Even Deeper Hole With Latest Excuse for Unacceptable Non-Answer on Antisemitism." In an op-ed for The Washington Times, Tim Murtaugh cast doubt with "White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s answer on antisemitism was a disaster."
Ever since that October 7 terrorist attack, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ben Ferguson have used their episodes of "The Verdict" to discuss what's going on in Israel. Wednesday's episode was no different, with the two addressing Jean-Pierre's responses from the podium this week.
Ferguson framed Jean-Pierre's remarks as an example of how "the White House got themselves in trouble," especially in light of how President Joe Biden "has mostly been saying the right things," though "the White House and the staffers [are] a completely different story."
The podcast included that clip in question embeded above.
Ferguson referred to the situation as "so laughable," offering Jean-Pierre claimed she misheard the question "only because of the massive backlash from that answer."
Cruz responded "it really is striking that the White House press secretary is unwilling to stand up and clearly and unequivocally condemn anti-semitism," as he shared that Jean-Pierre should be able to say "anti-semitism is wrong, it is evil, it is a unique evil that has existed on the face of this planet for thousands of years, and we are completely opposed to it" and that "moreover, we will ensure that that law enforcement resources are there to protect Jewish-Americans."
When it comes to just how "laughable" and "striking" Jean-Pierre's response is, Cruz brought up the Babylon Bee and pointed to a Monday night post the satirical site's managing editor, Joel Berry, had shared about a draft they had saved for on article on how "In Strong Response to Rising Hate Against Jews, Democrats Denounce Islamophobia."
"That's exactly what she did," Cruz stressed about what Jean-Pierre actually said and the drafted headline, something he and countless other users picked up on in their quoted reposts.
no longer satire.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 24, 2023
just sad. https://t.co/j5AsZNHxmF
It's not merely as to whether or not Jean-Pierre misheard the question or not. Rather the lack of concern about "credible threats" is also troubling.
As Cruz continued to note, it's "sad" because as he discussed "the anti-semitic bigots" and "when it comes to the Squad, when it comes to the 35 student groups at Harvard, and the radicals running our college campuses, the Biden White House," he offered, "I would have to assume--including Karine Jean-Pierre--side with the radicals against the people of Israel and against even American-Jews."
Of the claim "'we've seen no credible threat of anti-semitism in America,'" Cruz wanted to know "where the hell have you been if you haven't seen any," adding "because I gotta tell you, the Jewish community is feeling it acutely, and we've seen multiple horrific acts of violence directed against Jews directed against synagogues, including mass murderers in the United States and for for the White House to say they see no credible threat is truly absurd."
“Jews should definitely avoid the area”
— Mendy Pellin (@MendyTV) October 26, 2023
- NYPD 2023 pic.twitter.com/ePvJLCJpvC
Ferguson went on to also share more about his own disgust at the claims there's no credible threats, given the experiences of those close to him. He shared how a Jewish friend of his who works in Times Square in a large Jewish community, told him "they had been told by local law enforcement to really be on high alert and be careful and even had recommended they travele together in groups, not be isolated alone, and to be careful at their places of business."
"And yet the White House is acting like none of that's happening at all," Ferguson said.
Posts have been going around of how police are telling Jews to avoid places of NYC, is home to many Jews.
"It is sad, and and today's Democrat Party is captive to the far left," Cruz responded. "And I will say I've had conversations with multiple people on the left who are not deeply political, who are shocked at the open anti-semitism that is arising on the far left," the senator pointed out. While he said "it's been there for a long time," Cruz explained "if you're not paying close attention, it takes something like the events of the last couple of weeks to really bring into stark relief," adding "I hope this is opening some eyes."
Karine Jean-Pierre said there is no "credible threat" of rising antisemitism from Hamas sympathizers.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 26, 2023
Now, she is claiming that she misheard the question.
What she should have done is clearly and unequivocally condemn antisemitism. #Verdicthttps://t.co/Bnx7sG5xES
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