‘I Have to Move On!’ Jean-Pierre Blows Off Fox News Reporter Pushing Her To Say ‘Debt Is A Crisis’

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blew off Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich at the end of an exchange in which Heinrich pushed for an admission that “the debt is a crisis.”

President Joe Biden and his administration have been consistent in refusing to allow the debt limit to be “held hostage” by Republicans to force negotiations over the budget. But as the deadline approaches, the president held a meeting at the White House Tuesday with congressional leaders, after which the White House announced the scrapping of part of his foreign trip.

At Tuesday’s press briefing, prior to that meeting, the debt limit dominated the discussion, including the exchange with Heinrich that took place in the closing minutes of the briefing and ended with Heinrich trying to  shout over KJP to get a follow-up question in:

JACQUI HEINRICH: Thank you, Karine. The White House keeps saying that Republicans are manufacturing a crisis by refusing to do a clean bill to raise the debt limit. Right now, the nation’s debt exceeds 100 percent of its GDP. This has happened twice in U.S. history: once during World War Two and once now, over the last couple of years. How is it not a crisis when the country literally owes more than its worth?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: You should ask the — you should ask the Speaker this question. This is his job. This is his constitutional duty to move forward and get the debt limit done. That is a question for him.

They are the legislative — it is a co-equal branch, as you know. They are the legislative body, and this is what they’re supposed to do. That is a question — seriously, that is a question for the Speaker and the MAGA Republicans, who are literally holding our economy hostage.

I have to move on.

JACQUI HEINRICH: So you accept that the —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I promised to take one more.

JACQUI HEINRICH: — that the debt is —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I’ll take one —

JACQUI HEINRICH: — a crisis?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I’ll take — I’ll take one more.

JACQUI HEINRICH: You’d accept that the debt is a crisis?

PHILIP WEGMANN: Thank you, Karine. What is the White House reaction…

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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