The job of President Joe Biden’s press secretary — at least officially — is to answer truthfully questions posed by the White House press corps.
But when Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked a series of questions that, if answered truthfully, would embarrass the president by exposing his cynicism and hypocrisy, press secretary Jen Psaki had no choice but to throw in her cards and retreat to her unofficial job description: covering for Joe Biden.
The sparring between Doocy and Jen Psaki usually is the highlight of the daily news briefings. The reason, of course, is that Doocy — unlike many of the White House reporters — is willing to ask the tough questions.
Monday was no exception as Doocy recounted many of Biden’s hypocritical statements and conduct of late.
The grilling came in the form of six questions, the last of which would leave the press secretary stammering to provide a good response.
Doocy’s first was about the president’s decision to institute travel restrictions from six African nations in response to the new omicron variant of the coronavirus.
“Before Joe Biden was president, he said that COVID travel restrictions on foreign countries were ‘hysterical xenophobia’ and ‘fearmongering.’ So what changed?” the Fox reporter asked.
Psaki responded saying, “The president has not been critical of travel restrictions,” and added that Biden’s critique also had to do with what she characterized as a “xenophobic tweet and how [Trump] called — what he called the coronavirus.”
It’s not clear which tweet Psaki is referring to. Trump started calling COVID the “China virus” in March 2020, a month-and-a-half after Trump imposed his ban on travel from China, according to NBC News.
Weeks before that, at a Jan. 31, 2020, campaign event in Iowa, then-candidate Biden made some of his best-known comments on Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Trump had issued the travel ban related to China earlier in the day.
“In moments like this, this is where the credibility of the president is most needed, as he explains what we should and should not do,” Biden said, according to FactCheck.org. “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”
While FactCheck claimed it was “unclear” what Biden was referring to specifically, the context of the newly announced travel restriction makes it pretty clear what he was talking about.
But when Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked a series of questions that, if answered truthfully, would embarrass the president by exposing his cynicism and hypocrisy, press secretary Jen Psaki had no choice but to throw in her cards and retreat to her unofficial job description: covering for Joe Biden.
The sparring between Doocy and Jen Psaki usually is the highlight of the daily news briefings. The reason, of course, is that Doocy — unlike many of the White House reporters — is willing to ask the tough questions.
Monday was no exception as Doocy recounted many of Biden’s hypocritical statements and conduct of late.
The grilling came in the form of six questions, the last of which would leave the press secretary stammering to provide a good response.
Doocy’s first was about the president’s decision to institute travel restrictions from six African nations in response to the new omicron variant of the coronavirus.
“Before Joe Biden was president, he said that COVID travel restrictions on foreign countries were ‘hysterical xenophobia’ and ‘fearmongering.’ So what changed?” the Fox reporter asked.
Psaki responded saying, “The president has not been critical of travel restrictions,” and added that Biden’s critique also had to do with what she characterized as a “xenophobic tweet and how [Trump] called — what he called the coronavirus.”
It’s not clear which tweet Psaki is referring to. Trump started calling COVID the “China virus” in March 2020, a month-and-a-half after Trump imposed his ban on travel from China, according to NBC News.
Weeks before that, at a Jan. 31, 2020, campaign event in Iowa, then-candidate Biden made some of his best-known comments on Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Trump had issued the travel ban related to China earlier in the day.
“In moments like this, this is where the credibility of the president is most needed, as he explains what we should and should not do,” Biden said, according to FactCheck.org. “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”
While FactCheck claimed it was “unclear” what Biden was referring to specifically, the context of the newly announced travel restriction makes it pretty clear what he was talking about.
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