Karine Jean-Pierre tried to shut down this question - The Horn News

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Karine Jean-Pierre tried to shut down this question

By: The Horn editorial team

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre held a press conference Tuesday after the long weekend. She fielded questions about Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden’s trip to Ohio, and others.

But she refused to answer the question about Hunter Biden and the sensitive materials on a laptop that reportedly belongs to the First Child.

President Biden said at a campaign stop in 2019, “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” Yet last month, The Daily Mail obtained a 2018 voicemail contradicting that statement.

“I thought the article released online, it’s going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good,” the former vice president told his son, referring to a 2018 report on his son’s meeting with a China-based oil tycoon. “I think you’re clear.”

On Tuesday, Fox News asked the White House about this voicemail. Fox correspondent Peter Doocy asked, “Why is there a voicemail of the President talking to his son about his overseas business dealings if the President has said he’s never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings?”

Jean-Pierre responded, “Well, first, I’ll say that what the President said stands. So if he — if that’s what the President said, that is what stands.”

Doocy hit back. He asked, “He’s leaving a voicemail about a New York Times article… concerning Hunter Biden’s business dealings. And it says, “I think you’re clear.” How is that not him talking to his son about his overseas business dealings?”

“Secondly,” Jean-Pierre responded, talking over Doocy. “From this podium, I am not going to talk about alleged materials from the laptop… It’s not happening.”

Doocy followed up, “Are you disputing that it’s President’s voice on the voicemail?

Jean-Pierre ended the conversation by referring Doocy to Hunter Biden’s team. “Peter, I refer you to his son’s representative,” she said.

Her predecessor — former White House press secretary Jen Psaki — once did something similar when asked about the laptop.

“I’d point to the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden’s representatives,” Psaki said at a press conference in March. “I’m a spokesperson for the United States; he doesn’t work for the United States.”

Jean-Pierre has long displayed a combative relationship with Fox News. She called Fox News “racist before coronavirus” during a 2020 appearance on MSNBC.

She fielded another question from Fox News’s Peter Doocy during that same press conference.

Doocy asked, according to the White House transcript, “How did the President go from blaming high gas prices on Putin to Big Oil to small-business owners now?”

Jean-Pierre responded:

Well, here’s the thing about that, Peter, is when you look at — as of this morning, when you look at the crude oil and when you look at wholesale oil prices as well, they’ve declined about 15 percent. And so, retail gas prices, however, have only declined just about 3 percent over the same time period as we have seen with crude oil prices and the wholesale gas prices.

And meanwhile, those same retailers are profiting; their profit have gone up about 40 cents — nearly 40 cents in that same period of time.

So what the President is saying is that everyone along that chain, around that production chain line, needs to — needs to make sure that they’re doing what is possible, their part, in bringing down the costs for the American people.

That is what we’re asking. Consumers should not — should not be the first to pay and the last to benefit.

Watch Jean-Pierre’s exchange with Fox News here —

 

The Horn editorial team