White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got upset on Thursday that Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy didn’t accept her grandstanding.
As the border crisis rages on, government sources told reporters that more than 10,000 migrants crossed the border on Wednesday after more than 9,000 illegally entered the U.S. on Monday and Tuesday. The surge is overwhelming border towns. Doocy used those numbers as the basis for his question.
“What do you call it here at the White House when 10,000 people illegally cross the border in a single day?” Doocy asked Jean-Pierre.
But instead of answering, the press secretary immediately tried to play politics — a game for which Doocy had zero patience.
“So, what do you call it, Peter, when GOP puts forth a —” she answered.
“Karine, you’re answering a question with a question,” Doocy interjected.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, you can’t —” Jean-Pierre protested. “OK, we’re going to move on.”
As the two continued to talk over one another, a visibly frustrated Jean-Pierre claimed she “tried to answer” Doocy’s question but said Doocy “stopped” her from speaking. She then moved onto other reporters and never answered Doocy’s question.
09/21/23: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Jake Sullivanwww.youtube.com
Not long after Jean-Pierre’s frustrations with Doocy boiled over, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin explained why Doocy’s query was “an important question.”
“Just three weeks ago in late August, Karine Jean-Pierre was up there at that White House podium saying that they were ‘stopping the flow’ here at our southern border,” Melugin said. “I mean, I’ll let our viewers decide — but does this look like ‘stopping the flow’?”
Immigration authorities are acknowledging the surge, according to Melugin, but they are also ignoring the root cause of the problem.
“They attributed that surge to economic fallout from COVID, to climate change, and to authoritarian regimes,” Melugin explained. “Guys, in the more than two years I’ve been doing this, the amount of migrants that have told me climate change is a reason they are coming here would be zero. Zero.”
The White House blames Republicans for the border crisis because President Joe Biden failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform at the beginning of his presidency. It’s a convenient talking point for the Biden administration, no doubt.
But as Doocy later told Fox News host Sean Hannity, the Biden administration has not made another attempt at passing the bill.
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