Jean-Pierre Grilled Over Biden Special Counsel Grilling — And Whether It ‘Impeded’ Response To Terrorist Assault

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was grilled for several minutes about whether President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur “impeded” his response to the massive Hamas terrorist assault on Israel.

News broke Monday that the president met with Hur for interviews over the course of Sunday and Monday in Hur’s investigation into classified documents first discovered and turned over by Biden’s team. The president also coordinated responses with half-a-dozen U.S. allies and kept in contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The special counsel interviews were the subject of Jean-Pierre’s first several questions at Tuesday’s White House press briefing, including CBS News White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe’s suggestion the interviews may have “impeded” Biden’s response to the attacks:

Q On the special counsel interviews, did the President answer all the questions that were asked during the interviews, and was the executive privilege invoked at any time? I know there’s limits on what you can say, but any transparency will be helpful on this.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, my colleagues at the White House — my colleague at the White House Counsel put out a statement yesterday, so — providing an update of — of where we are with this particular — with this particular in- — interview in the special counsel, obviously. I’m just not going to go beyond what my colleague has shared.

If you have any further questions, certainly I would refer you to Department of Justice or the White House Counsel to ask any detailed information.

Go ahead.

All right. Go ahead.

Q For the record, though, we understand the President’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur was scheduled long before the conflict began, at least that’s what we’re being told by people here at the White House and elsewhere. Did the President and his legal team ever ask for the interview to be rescheduled, given what transpired in Israel over the weekend?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, again, Ed, I’m not going to go beyond the statement from the White House Counsel. And you all know and have seen for yourself, the President spoke the second — this is the second time he’s spoken about Israel in the last couple of days.

And, you kn- — so, we know how focused he’s been on — on what has happened. He’s shown his leadership over the h- — the horrific events over the weekend in Israel.

And look, we disclosed — we disclosed the interview. We put that out in a statement from the White House Counsel — from my colleague at the White House Counsel.

And the President is — obviously was intensely engaged. He spoke to many of our allies, whether the King of Jordan, the leaders of Italy, France, Germany, and the UK. And he met — and as I said at the top, he met with our national security team over a dozen times. And he spoke with Bibi — Prime Minister Netanyahu, to be more precise — the third time today. So, twice over the weekend.

So, he’s been very much focused on the issues of the, you know, horrific events that we have seen in Israel.

And, you know, the President is able to do multiple things at once, right? As president, he has to do multiple things at once. And that’s what you saw him do this weekend.

Q And did the President’s need to be interviewed by the Special Counsel yesterday impede or keep him from giving the remarks he gave today yesterday? Because you know — the press office certainly knows there was a lot of inquiry and concern and criticism that perhaps he was not as publicly engaged yesterday as he possibly could have been.

It was a federal holiday. There was some respect or decision made to not hold public events on the federal holiday. But, clearly, he was doing a big thing by meeting with the Special Counsel. So, was there any reason to believe that that impeded his ability to respond publicly to what was going on in the Middle East?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Well, as I just said, Ed, presidents have to do multiple things at once. He spoke on Saturday — right? — when we learned — when all of you were reporting and it was incoming of what was happening in Israel. He spoke today, obviously. There were multiple statements from this President.

I just mentioned, he menti- — he met with his national security team dozens of time. He did multiple calls with heads of states, trying to make sure that we got the support, continued that support, organized support of — of other allies and partners across — across the world. And we put out a statement as well — a joint statement from those — from those allies and partners.

Look, the President was — was very much engaged in showing his — his leadership and also how we’re continue — we’re going to continue to support Israel. And that’s going to certainly — we’re going to — that’s how we’re going to move forward.

And again, the President has to handle many things at once, and we saw him do that over the past couple of days, since — certainly, since Saturday.

Watch above via The White House.