Karine Jean-Pierre’s First Week Goes From Bad to Worse After She Fumbles Multiple Questions – Opinion

Joe Biden’s new press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, is not having a good first week. As Redstate reported on Monday, Fox News’ Peter Doocy managed to stump her on her first day at the podium with a basic question about Joe Biden’s conflation of tax rates and inflation. In vain, Doocy tried to filibuster when she realized she didn’t have an answer. She read out of her briefing book on unrelated subjects after it became obvious she did not know the right answer. It wasn’t a good look at all.

On Wednesday, Jean-Pierre slammed into multiple brick walls, making two admissions that I don’t think Biden’s other handlers are going to appreciate very much. First, the violence that is allegedly about the imminent overturning Roe v. Wade.

Doocy asked tough questions because who can blame her? Doocy asked her tough questions, and she fell flat when she tried to read the briefing book again.

DOOCY – “Are these threats by pro-abortion advocates or anti-abortion workers?”

Karine Jean Pierre says: “It appears to us that the system is extremely one-sided in what we call intimidation or violence.” pic.twitter.com/kEq2PI1fWT

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 18, 2022

There are a few different ways to translate what she’s saying in that clip, and none of them play well for the administration. One possibility is that she’s blatantly lying by asserting that violence and intimidation are “one-sided,” a laughable contention given that leftwing protesters have been trying to intimidate the Supreme Court Justices at their homes for weeks. She could also have let her guard down and admitted that they are biased in the things that they ignore or, in some instances, support.

I tend to think it was a mixture, with Jean-Pierre attempting to blame the right for “intimidation” outside abortion clinics, something that doesn’t happen because it’s illegal and the law is enforced. That then led her into a bumbling answer regarding what the White House chooses to highlight in regards to so-called “extremism.” Regardless, whatever she actually “meant,” it makes the administration look dishonest and grossly political in the face of left-wing violence and intimidation, specifically involving the Supreme Court.

The result of Jean-Pierre’s performance is to once again illuminate just how badly cut out she is for the job she’s been given. While she likes to brag that she’s the first “black, gay, immigrant” to hold her position, those aren’t actually qualifications. This is a person who doesn’t understand public speaking, constantly reading from her briefing book without looking up for long stretches, and who is so obviously not doing the proper leg work to be ready for even basic challenges from the press. Well, I say “from the press,” but I really just mean Peter Doocy.

A question about the stock market which is in free fall again, provides another example. This was her response.

Karine Jean-Pierre answered a question about today’s plunge in the stock markets.

“We don’t-that’s something we don’t keep an eye on every single day.”

Who do you know that keeps an eye on the market every day? Biden is not the only one who watches their 401k more than anyone else.

— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) May 18, 2022

In the past month, the Dow Jones has fallen by around 4,000 points and the Nasdaq is worse. Jean-Pierre’s answer to a softball question on the White House’s reaction is “That’s not something we keep an eye on every day”? That’s an astonishingly cold and unempathetic answer to Americans who are watching their retirements burn to the ground with no end in sight.

Jean-Pierre, however, is terrible at her job. She’s the Kamala Harris of press secretaries, and that’s not a compliment. Jen Psaki managed to misdirect her opponents with humor and skill. By contrast, Jean-Pierre looks like a deer in headlights, desperately clinging to the safety of a briefing book that doesn’t have the answers she needs. Perhaps she’ll improve with experience, but man has this been a rough start.