PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on threats to democracy.
NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe speaks with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about what President Biden can do to curb threats against democracy in the wake of his speech last week.
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RASCOE: In his speech, the president also expressed concerns about the outcomes of elections being honored. What exactly is the Biden administration doing to ensure that the outcomes of the November elections are not undermined by false claims of voter fraud?
JEAN-PIERRE: Well, you know, I can’t get into politics from here from this particular position that I am as a government official. But what we believe is that if he used that moment to call that out — right? — he used that moment — the importance of free and fair elections and how that is very much part of our democracy and telling people, you know, there’s a — it’s time to stand up. It’s time to make sure that folks make their voices heard. And so that’s what the president was trying to make sure — that people understood this inflection point.
And you cannot have an extreme part of a party. And he didn’t say mainstream Republicans, right? He believes there are mainstream Republicans who believe in protecting our democracy. But there are these extreme part of the party, that MAGA party, that we need to call out when we see that our democracy is under attack, when we see that our freedoms and our equality is under attack. He believes as president, he has the — he has the biggest bully pulpit. And it is important to him to make sure he has the loudest voice as we speak about democracy. And that’s what he used that moment to do.
The calls of democracy being under attack are coming from inside the house! ‘Stolen’ elections and collusion: Karine Jean-Pierre’s Twitter history:
Notably, Jean-Pierre was not asked about her election denying past until today, and fumbled her response: Karine Jean-Pierre Struggles When Confronted with Her Record of Election Denial.
“I knew this was coming, I was waiting Peter when you were going to ask me that question,” she said, in response to a question from Fox News reporter Peter Doocy during the White House press briefing.
Jean-Pierre dismissed the questions as not relevant.
“Let’s be really clear, that comparison that you made is just ridiculous,” Jean-Pierre replied.
She claimed that she had since stated that Trump and Kemp won their elections.
Jean-Pierre immediately pivoted to the January 6th riots.
“Let’s not forget about what happened on January 6th 2021 when we saw an insurrection, a mob that was incited by the person who occupied this campus, this facility at this time,” she said.
It’s telling that she thinks only someone from Fox News would ask her about her election-denying threats to democracy, and not having a better response prepared in advance.