Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, attempted her hand on MSNBC’s “The Morning Show” on Sunday but didn’t have much luck.
The attack on Paul Pelosi was a major focus of the segment, and Jean-Pierre persisted in saying that “we have to condemn political violence,” adding that “it is something that should not be controversial, it is something that should not be partisan, it is something that all of us need to say that, and uh, it should be done in one voice.” But regrettably it has turned political, and we need to put an end to this, she continued to bemoan. “The president has mentioned this numerous times, and he has discussed it in his speeches and in his remarks,” the author continues.
Such assertions from Jean-Pierre are especially rich considering how little the White House and Biden administration did in relation to the assassination attempt against Justice Brett Kavanaugh after the Dobbs v. Jackson judgment was leaked in the beginning of May. Both Jean-Pierre and her predecessor, Jen Psaki, played down the unlawful demonstrations at the residence of conservative justices; Psaki even claimed that they “encouraged” the demonstrations.
Regarding Biden’s denial of the murder plot, the White House response from Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates was similarly rife with gaslighting.
"It is horrific and just very sad…We have to condemn political violence, it should not be controversial." @PressSec reacts to the assault of Speaker Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi #SundayShow pic.twitter.com/jQm2NcUJ1X
— The Saturday/Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart (@weekendcapehart) October 30, 2022
Then, Jean-Pierre switched to portraying David DePape, the suspected assailant of Paul Pelosi, as a visitor to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. According to her, “the thing that was perhaps the most frightening about when we hear the stories of this attacker, of this assailant, was—he was crying out things that we heard during January 6, which was “where is Nancy?”
According to Spencer’s Friday comment about DePage, who Jean-Pierre did not name, he is a “former Castro nudist protester” and “hemp jewelry artisan.”
In his subsequent remarks, Jean-Pierre reiterated that “we need to eliminate this type of speech” and that “it is very, incredibly harmful.”
It is insulting that Jean-Pierre would criticize “rhetoric” considering that President Joe Biden has delivered speeches, as she herself recognized. However, the president used unusually aggressive language to condemn “MAGA Republicans” as a purported threat to democracy in those addresses, which Jean-Pierre did not mention. At the podium during news conferences, Jean-Pierre herself repeated this discourse.
Not only did Jean-Pierre not address this, but she also stated that Biden “believes in, he believes in, reaching out to the other side and working together” when host Jonathan Capehart asked about a bipartisan denunciation of the attack on Paul Pelosi. Even more gravely, the press secretary continued, “this is something you. see throughout his, um, career, so there is nothing that is unusual for him, right, to reach over to the other side.”
But only a second later, as she spoke about “the onslaught that we were seeing on democracy” and how “we still have people out there who are undermining that, undermining our free and fair elections,” Jean-Pierre herself doubled down on condemning the opposing side. The president has addressed the issue numerous times, she continued, stating that “what we witnessed on January 6 still persists, it still exists.”
According to Jean-Pierre, this is why Biden ran for president in 2020 and, later, why he was successful in doing so.
After cautioning her to exercise caution when discussing elections, Jean-Pierre concluded this episode by making one last ditch effort to support Democrats in the midterm elections. She emphasized “there is so much at stake,” noting of the president, “what he’s out there saying is that there is a choice to be made.”
When discussing the economy, democracy, and what congressional Republicans are attempting, Jean-Pierre said that “there are differences to what congressional—what he and congressional Democrats are trying to do.”
But according to numerous surveys, Republicans are more popular with voters. Republicans not only have a good chance of taking over the House, but their odds of taking over the Senate have also been rising.
