It was a particularly rushed White House briefing when it comes to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre being able to take questions from reporters, as National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spent a significant portion of time speaking and taking questions. That being said, in the few minutes she did speak, Jean-Pierre still managed to have a particularly memorable moment, and for all the wrong reasons.
During one of the last questions of one of the last press briefings of the Biden-Harris administration, Jean-Pierre made the point that "we beat Medicare," all with a straight face.
Such a response came as Jean-Pierre was taking a question on Medicare price negotiations and when any such rollouts may come. Despite the Biden-Harris administration coming to an end, Jean-Pierre could offer no explanation. She did, however, tout the woefully misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) when it comes to the completely unrelated and rather inaccurate points on how it was "incredibly important in lowering costs for Americans as we think about, uh, I mean, if you think about, obviously, climate change, it was the uh, and what we're seeing with the wildfires, it certainly is the most, um, uh, uh proactive piece of legislation that we're able to get passed to deal with climate change."
Jean-Pierre herself even seemed to acknowledge that she was veering wildly off-topic, as she returned to answering the reporter's question, sort of. "But as you ask me about, uh, about this particular question, look, we were able to beat Medicare, that is something that this president was able to do, now you see Medicare is able to make negotiations," which is where that bizarre slip came in.
REALITY CHECK: Democrats did beat Medicare when they took $230 BILLION from Medicare to fund electric vehicle tax credits.
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 13, 2025
So in a sense, KJP is correct. https://t.co/nIW8NR4V7L
Remember this?
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 11, 2025
BIDEN: Everything we have to do with, uh... look.... if... we finally beat Medicare...
TRUMP: Well, he's right, he did beat Medicare, he beat it to d*ath. He's destroying Medicare.pic.twitter.com/hhSIKXNyuo
It was during that disastrous debate between President Joe Biden and now President-elect Donald Trump on June 27 that Biden had such a slip. It came after considerable and obvious struggle from the president, who was then still trying to convince the American people and even members of his own party that he was indeed running for reelection.
Trump himself had a fitting quip in response. "Well, he's right. He did beat Medicare, he beat it to death. He's destroying Medicare," he offered.
After again making clear she didn't "have anything to share" during Monday's press briefing, Jean-Pierre still tried once more to focus on how supposedly "lowering costs on medical--medical prescription drugs" and "making sure we make things more affordable for Americans" is "something that the president has put at the center when he talks about his economic policy and certainly moving forward." Such is another inaccurate claim from this administration.
In Biden's case, he has the excuse of having been, at the time, an 81-year-old doddering old fool who had no business running for reelection and had dropped out of the race less than a month later--on July 21. After such a performance, the chorus from his own fellow Democrats grew louder about a need for him to drop out, lest he drag other Democrats down with him. That being said, Jean-Pierre has been rather inartful and bumbling herself during briefings.
Good Lord, what a way to close out one of the very last briefings. In a way, though, it's perfectly fitting for this administration and this press secretary.
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