Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocey doesn’t deserve the abuse he gets from the White House. After all, like all the other White House correspondents for “real” news organizations, Doocey is just trying to do a job.
But Doocey has the nasty habit of exposing the lies, the deceit, and the gob-smacking stupidity of White House press flack. And for that, he’s hated by the partisans in the White House briefing room. And that includes Karine Jean-Pierre, the clueless White House press secretary.
KJP has been given the Impossible task of turning the grim news of the day into sunshine and roses. Sometimes, her efforts fall a little short. Exhibit A: This exchange with Doocey on Tuesday.
“Somebody unvaccinated comes over on a plane. You say that’s not OK. Somebody walks into Texas or Arizona unvaccinated, they’re allowed to stay? Why?” Doocy asked at the White House press briefing.
“But that’s not how it works,” Jean-Pierre said.
“That’s what’s happening,” Doocy said. “I know that’s not what you guys want to happen. But that is what is happening.”
“But that’s not — it’s not like somebody walks over,” Jean-Pierre responded.
Exhibit B: The video. (Report begins at 4:30)
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Needless to say, KJP stirred up a hornet’s nest of people who are more knowledgeable about what’s happening at the border than she is.
The denial that people are walking across the border illegally sparked outrage from border officials, Trump administration officials and Republican lawmakers, who noted that hundreds of thousands of migrants are walking across the border each month.
“This is a coordinated disinformation campaign by this administration. To claim illegal aliens are not walking across the border or to infer that they are tested for COVID is absurd,” former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf tweeted. “And they know better.”
The claim is also in sharp contrast to footage taken by Fox News since the beginning of the border crisis last year, including in recent months when Fox has filmed multiple groups of illegal immigrants walking into the United States.
This is a case where “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth puts on its boots.” The White House has control of the narrative, and reality is pretty much anything they say it is. The other reporters in the room know that Doocey is correct and know that KJP is either an ignoramus or is lying. But the border issue is a “Fox issue” that only right-wing MAGA nutcases care about. The rest of America remains blissfully asleep.
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