(Article by Kevin Tober republished from NewsBusters.org)
First out of the gate was Chris Megerian from the Associated Press who asked: “is the President willing to be interviewed by federal investigators about his handling of classified documents?” White House press secretary and diversity hire Karine Jean-Pierre was once again unprepared for any substantive question posed to her: “I’m just not going to get into hypotheticals,” she responded.
Yet Megerian didn’t back down. “It’s not a hypothetical question. There’s an investigation ongoing. Will the President speak to investigators?” he asked.
No matter how many times she’s asked a question, Jean-Pierre proves she just isn’t cut out for the job. After getting another shot at answering the question, Jean-Pierre replied: “You’re asking me about something in the future, and I am telling you that I’m not going to get ahead of what the Department of Justice is going to decide.”
Megerian moved on to another angle by noting that “this is the kind of thing that can cause government employees to lose a security clearance. This is a serious matter, as the White House has said.”
“Was the President sloppy in his handling of classified material if there are multiple locations where classified documents are being found?” he asked.
Jean-Pierre simply read a statement from White House Counsel Richard Sauber who said, “We are confident that their thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the President and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”
Later on in the briefing, things got much more heated when CBS’s Ed O’Keefe grilled Jean-Pierre on the administration’s complete lack of transparency:
Megerian moved on to another angle by noting that “this is the kind of thing that can cause government employees to lose a security clearance. This is a serious matter, as the White House has said.”
“Was the President sloppy in his handling of classified material if there are multiple locations where classified documents are being found?” he asked.
Jean-Pierre simply read a statement from White House Counsel Richard Sauber who said, “We are confident that their thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the President and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”
Later on in the briefing, things got much more heated when CBS’s Ed O’Keefe grilled Jean-Pierre on the administration’s complete lack of transparency:
The first set of documents were found in November at the Penn Biden Center here in Washington, but why did it take until yesterday and until this morning, apparently, for whoever it was to inform Robert [sic] Lausch that that final document was found? Was that because there were press reports earlier this week — And the hope was that nobody would find out?
In response, she claimed “we did this by the book” and that “the moment that the lawyers discovered that the papers were there, or the documents were there, they reached out to the Archives, they reached out to [the] Department of Justice.”
O’Keefe wasn’t done. He laid into Jean-Pierre over the lack of transparency: “You talk about we are being transparent. Who is we? And what is the definition of transparent in this case?”
She once again repeated how “we take this very seriously” and “the President takes this very seriously.”
Jean-Pierre claimed that they’ve “been transparent in this as well is that the White House Counsel has laid out in detail.” Before she could even finish her rambling incoherent answer, O’Keefe shot back that “they haven’t laid out everything, Karine, and you know that.”
The following heated back and forth took place following O’Keefe’s stern response (click expand):
JEAN-PIERRE: First of all, I can’t talk about this — right? — because it is — the Department of Justice is reviewing it. There is a review happening, Ed. Right? You know this. We just heard from the Attorney General. There is a review. I am limited in what I can say to this.
O’KEEFE: Then could Richard Sauber perhaps come here or Stuart Delery come here?
JEAN-PIERRE: I think you should — I think you should reach out to the White House Counsel.
O’KEEFE: We’re reaching out on a constant basis —
JEAN-PIERRE: Okay. And —
O’KEEFE:— but why not have them come here, to the room —
JEAN-PIERRE: Okay, I am saying to you —
O’KEEFE:— to take questions?
JEAN-PIERRE: —that we have put out lengthy statements. And you can reach out to them, as you all have been doing. And I will leave it there. Go ahead.
O’KEEFE: But why are they subjecting you to this, Karine, then?
JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead, Justin.
O’KEEFE: Why not have them come and answer the questions?
JEAN-PIERRE: I — they have been — they have been talking to you all pretty regularly the last couple of days. We have put out — they have put out lengthy statements on this. I just read out what Richard Sauber had to say. And I would refer you to the White House Counsel. I am limited in what I can say because — because the Department of Justice — we see them as being independent when it comes to these types of issues. And so, I’m not going to go beyond what the President say — said. And I’m not going to go beyond what the lawyers said. I have to go around. You’ve asked about —
O’KEEFE: But can there be —
JEAN-PIERRE: You’ve asked me —
O’KEEFE: Can there at least be an acknowledgment then —
JEAN-PIERRE: Ed —
O’KEEFE:— that there’s going to be a limit in transparency — public, non-legal transparency — in what can be shared and said by this White House —
JEAN-PIERRE: I disagree. There has —
O’KEEFE: — given what we’ve learned today?
JEAN-PIERRE: I disagree, Ed. There has not been a limit of transparency. That is —
O’KEEFE: These statements were lacking —
JEAN-PIERRE: That is —
O’KEEFE:— information on —
JEAN-PIERRE: That is —
O’KEEFE:— when exactly these —
JEAN-PIERRE: There has not been a —
O’KEEFE: — things were found.
Next to the plate was Kristen Welker of NBC who challenged Jean-Pierre: “You have said repeatedly and the President has said he takes classified documents very seriously,” Welker said. “If that’s the case, why were these classified documents being stored in his garage?”
Jean-Pierre repeated the line she used countless times during the briefing, that “classified documents and information, he takes that very seriously.”
Welker shot back: “Does he think a garage as an appropriate place to store classified material?”
She followed up by asking if Jean-Pierre acknowledges “the fact that the White House did not reveal this to the public, despite the fact that you’ve known about it for months, undercuts the President’s promise of being transparent with the American people?”
“They were transparent,” Jean-Pierre muttered. “But not to the American people,” Welker shot back.
Last but not least, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy referred to the Biden classified documents scandal as “GarageGate”. Doocy asked: “what is the White House trying to hide?”
“Nothing,” Jean-Pierre bluntly responded.
“Someone gave the President a statement to read on Tuesday that was incomplete at best, misleading at worst. Who?” Doocy asked.
Jean-Pierre claimed Biden “did not know that the records were there,” and that “we take this very seriously and the President does as well.”
Doocy followed up by asking: “When will the White House release a log of visitors to the Wilmington house?”
Jean-Pierre dodged the question and claimed that they “instituted something that the last administration got rid of, which is putting out the White House, putting making sure that there was a White House log, an extensive White House log, so the American people got to see.”
Tuesday wasn’t any better for Jean-Pierre with many of the same characters at play, including Doocy, Mattingly, O’Keefe, and Welker (with others such as the AP’s Zeke Miller, ABC’s Cecilia Vega, NPR’s Franco Ordoñez, and even theGrio’s April Ryan).
For O’Keefe, he spent a lengthy period duking it out with Jean-Pierre, calling her out for “not...answer[ing] the questions, but we’re going to ask them”. When he noted that Biden said on January 21, 2021, that the administration would be based on facts and transparency, Jean-Pierre whined that O’Keefe didn’t “need to” create “this kind of confrontation” and “be contentious” because “we work very well together.”
Doocy was also direct: “[H]ow could anyone be that irresponsible? Isn’t that what this President says about mishandling classified documents?” Later, he even asked whether Biden could “be trusted, moving forward, with America’s secrets.”
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