White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answered press questions for the first time since the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago on Monday, and… well… it did not go well.
First, Jean-Pierre played dumb (or dumber than usual) in response to a question about when Joe Biden “found out” about the raid.
“Can you tell us anything more?” a reporter asked. “Was he watching the news? Was he scrolling Twitter? Did someone in his staff flag it for him?”
She gave a nervous, stammered response. “I can tell you this: he was not uh, aware of, of, of, uhh of… of… of the uh… what is it, the Mar-a-Lago raid? I don’t know what you guys are calling it—uh, uh… before it happened.”
Not very convincing, was it? But her worst moment was when Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy addressed the raid in a series of questions, eventually asking the money question: “Is this White House weaponizing the Justice Department and the FBI against political opponents?”
It was a simple yes or no question, yet Jean-Pierre launched right into boilerplate. “The President has been very clear, uh, from before he was elected, very clear on this—”
Doocy, not letting her filibuster, asked her the question again, and she did not say “no.”
“Is this administration weaponizing the Justice Department and the FBI against political opponents?” Doocy asked.
“Peter, the President believes in the rule of law,” she said. “The President believes in the independence of the Department of Justice.”
“That’s a yes or no from you?”
“I’m answering the question. You may not like it, but I’m answering the question.”
She wasn’t answering the question, and it was a horrible look to not deny that the Biden administration is weaponizing the Justice Department and FBI against political opponents.
"Is this administration weaponizing the Justice Department against political opponents?"
Karine Jean-Pierre REFUSES to answer EVERY question from Fox's Peter Doocy. pic.twitter.com/5itv6O2GWV
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 9, 2022
Talk about a bad look. A simple “No, the Department of Justice hasn’t been politicized or weaponized,” would have been a better response. I guess the truth wasn’t in her notes.
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