White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was quick to dismiss Fox News’ anti-Biden propagandist after he attempted to spin today’s news about then-President Donald Trump concealing the results of his positive COVID test just days before standing on stage with Joe Biden in a September 2020 debate into a story about President Joe Biden’s success in averting the pandemic.
“There’s a lot of talk about the first Trump-Biden debate today,” Doocy began. “But at the second one in 2021, roughly 220,000 Americans had already died of COVID. Joe Biden said about Trump, ‘anyone who was responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America.’ Is that still the standard now that more Americans have died under President Biden?”
“I think the fundamental question here is what are you doing to save lives and protect people?” Psaki responded, with a tinge of anger. “And the former president was suggesting people inject bleach. He apparently, reportedly didn’t even share with people he was going to interact with that he had tested positive for COVID himself.”
“He continued to provide a forum for misinformation, which probably led to people not getting, not taking steps forward to get to protect themselves, to wear a mask, to eventually get vaccinated. This President has made the vaccine widely available. He’s relied on the health – the advice of his health and medical experts, and he is trying to be a part of solving this crisis, getting the pandemic under control. And I think there’s a pretty stark difference between their approaches.”
Psaki and Doocy have gone at each other before. Psaki was again forced to verbally pummel Doocy after the aggressive, combative, and fear-mongering Fox News correspondent sought to create a fight over President Joe Biden’s lack of recent visits to the southern border.
After everything was said and done, Psaki reminded Doocy that while Donald Trump was president, he “went to the border, at least once, maybe more,” she claimed. “How did that immigration policy result Peter? That immigration policy resulted in separating kids from their parents, building a border wall that’s feckless, and that cost billions of dollars for taxpayers.”
“The President said last night,” Doocy added, alluding to President Biden’s statements at a CNN town hall on Thursday night, “why did President Biden say he had been to the border?”
“Well, Peter,” Psaki replied, explaining that President Biden drove “through the border when he was on the campaign trail in 2008, and he’s certainly familiar with the fact and it stuck with him with the fact that in El Paso, the border goes right through the center of town, but what the most important thing everyone should know and understand is that the President has worked on these issues throughout his entire career, and is well-versed in every aspect of our immigration system including the border that includes when he was vice president, and he went to Mexico and Central America ten times to address border issues and talk about what we can do to reduce the number of migrants who were coming to the border.”
And she added that Biden “does not need a visit to the border to know what a mess was left by the last administration, that’s his view.”
Doocy, still fixated with President Biden’s obligatory presence at the southern border, pushed back forcefully.
“Does that count as a visit? He said, ‘I’ve been there before,’ you’re saying he drove by for a few minutes, does that count?” Doocy demanded.
“What is the root cause? Where are people coming from when they’re coming to the border Peter?” Psaki asked.
“I’m asking you a question because I think people should understand the context,” Psaki continued.
“Okay, I’ll answer it for you,” she said, giving up. “People come from Central America and Mexico, to go to the border. The President has been to those countries ten times to talk about border issues,” she informed Doocy. “There is a focus right now on a photo op. The President does not believe a photo op is the same as solutions that may be a difference he has with Republicans.”
"There is a focus right now on a photo op. The president does not believe a photo op is the same as solutions. That may be a difference he has with Republicans" — Psaki to Peter Doocy as he grills her about whether Biden has technically visited the border pic.twitter.com/5Y6awKDE0A
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 22, 2021
Just a few days ago they had another battle.
Psaki used a question from Fox News correspondent Doocy to remind the people that former President Donald Trump instigated an uprising by attempting to overturn the election results in 2020.
Doocy said during a White House press conference on Monday that President Joe Biden had breached a vow not to intervene with the Department of Justice by discussing the prosecution of Trump supporters who invaded the US Capitol on Jan. 6.
“The president continues to believe that Jan. 6 was one of the darkest days in our democracy,” Psaki explained. “He also continues to believe that the Department of Justice has the purview and the independence to make decisions about prosecutions.”
“You say that that is his view but that is not what he said,” Doocy pushed back. “I just conveyed what his view is and that is also how he has operated, how he has governed, and how he will continue to govern,” Psaki insisted.
Doocy persisted, pointing out that Biden had promised not to “do what former President Trump did” by using the Justice Department as a weapon against his opponents.
“Well, since you give me the opportunity,” Psaki replied, “the former president used his office to incite an insurrection, he put political pressure on senior DOJ officials to propagate lies about the election to the point where they threatened to resign en masse. I think there’s hardly a comparison there.”
Doocy refused to accept the response, citing Biden’s statement that he would not pursue the Justice Department.
“And he has not,” Psaki remarked as Doocy protested.
This is far from the first time that Psaki has owned Doocy.
Back in August, Psaki slammed Fox News reporter Peter Doocy for reporting that the Biden administration has “stranded” Americans in Afghanistan.
As of today, the Biden administration has evacuated nearly 40,000 people out of Afghanistan, including Afghans and Americans.
Doocy, who slams the government almost daily from the press room chairs, did so again on Monday, earning a sharp rebuke from Psaki.
“First of all, I think it’s irresponsible to say ‘Americans are stranded.’ They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home. We are in touch with them via phone, via text, via email, via any way that we can possibly reach Americans, to get them home if they want to return.
“I’m just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan when we have been very clear that we are not leaving Americans who want to return home, we are going to bring them home and I think that’s important for the American public to hear and understand,” Psaki responded when Doocy pushed back.
Conservatives recently blew a gasket after it was announced that Psaki would be featured in Vogue magazine.
Vogue had “failed” its viewers, according to Fox&Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, by “deliberately neglecting the most influential fashion icon in the White House since Jackie O” — or rather, Ms. Trump — “while laughably fawning over Jill Biden’s drab Talbots look.”
“Likewise, politics and hate for Trump and conservative women, in particular, drove their decision to snub Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany,” added the Fox co-host, who described Kayleigh McEnany as “so demonstrably superior to Jen Psaki.”] “Not just in beauty and style, but also intelligence and sheer communication skills,” said Campos-Duffy. “Simply put, Vogue hates conservative women more than they love fashion.”
“Kamala Harris, Jill Biden and now Jen Psaki already set for Vogue — Melania Trump, Kayley McEnany, Sarah Sanders snubbed,” tweeted Charlie Spiering, a White House correspondent for far-right news website Breitbart.
