Reporters Challenge KJP For Saying ‘It Doesn’t Matter Who It Is’ Spewing Racism: ‘But You Know It Matters To Some, Right?’

MSNBC Way Too Early host and Politico White House Bureau Chief Jonathan Lemire and Playboy’s Brian Karem pushed White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to explain why she said “it doesn’t matter who it is” promoting racist theories of the sort that inspired the Buffalo mass shooter.

Although Fox News host Tucker Carlson was named by another reporter at Monday’s press briefing, there are a host of other Republican personalities, elected officials, and candidates who have publicly espoused versions of “replacement theory.”

When asked about Carlson specifically — and others more broadly — early in the briefing, Jean-Pierre said “I’m not going to speak or call out any individual names.  I’m saying that this is something that we need to call out.”

CNN’s MJ Lee zeroed in on this a few minutes later, saying “there are some elected officials and media figures who are publicly espousing xenophobic, racist, and extremist views that may be helping to spread white nationalism. You just told my colleague here that you don’t want to call out any names,” and asking “Why don’t you want to do that? Does that come from the President himself?”

“No, I think because it doesn’t matter who it is,” Jean-Pierre said. “What — if a person espouses hatred, we need to call that out. I’m not going to get into a back-and-forth on names and who said what.”

Lemire and Karem also challenged KJP, and specifically pressed her to explain why she said “it doesn’t matter who it is.”

Jean-Pierre’s lengthy response seemed designed to convey a desire to leave partisan politics out of the issue, but little else:

MR. LEMIRE: Thank you. And congratulations. I was hoping you could offer a little more of an explanation about something you said earlier, where you said that they were — did not want to call out by name individuals who had been espousing racist theories that could be fueling violence. I guess my question is: Why not, particularly if they’re individuals who have very large platforms and theoretically carry a lot of influence? This would be — people accused of doing so include the number three Republican in the House and the host of the number one cable news show on television. Why not call them out by name?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, look, what we saw on Saturday was devastating and horrific. You know, it is — what we want to do is making sure that we send a very clear message that hate must have no safe harbor. And we must do everything in our power to end hate-fueled domestic terrorism. And we must reject hatred and extreme — extreme ideologies that seek to divide Americans, wherever we find it in society; it is antithetical to who we are as a country. And that is what we want to make sure that we’re doing.

It doesn’t matter who it is. This — this is something, like, morally — like, mor- — the moral truth of this is that, you know, it is a racial-motivated hate crime, and it’s a — abhorrent.

And so, that’s what we need to call out. It doesn’t — it doesn’t matter who that is. And that’s what we’re trying to make clear here. We’re not — we’re not going to get into politics here about this. We want to make sure that we’re calling out what we’re seeing. These are people’s lives.

At the top of this — of the briefing — I talked about 10 people — 10 people who are doing what many of us might be doing on a Saturday — is going shopping. You know, I know I go to the supermarket with my — with my seven-year-old very often. If it’s not on a Saturday, it’s on a Sunday, before the week starts, to get the needs — to get what we need for the week.

I mean, this is what happened to everyday people, from 20 years old to 86 years old. That’s what we saw on Saturday. And so, we need to call that out and do everything that we can to really deal with this issue.

And we know we have a lot of work to do.

MR. KAREM: But you know it matters to some, right? It does matter to some people who it is that’s calling it out. And when you don’t call the — when you don’t call out the individual, they feel as if you’re backing away from the issue.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: No, but we’re not.

MR. KAREM: (Inaudible) to the point.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: No, we’re not backing. How are we backing away from the issue?

MR. KAREM: Well, because you won’t name who it is.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: But here’s the thing: We’re calling out what is happening. We’re going to the heart of the issue, the hatred of the issue. Why — but I guess my point is, you know, we are — this is a President — right? — who decided to run because of what he saw in Charlottesville — right? — and he talked about the soul of the nation. And it was something that propelled him to jump into the 2020 primary — because of what this showed, because it was, again, against who we are as a country, as he believed it to be.

And so, you know, it is something that is important to remember. And this is a President that calls it out every time we see this horrific violence.

And it’s not about — once you get into calling out people’s names, then you move away from that issue, right? You move away from that issue. So, that’s why I’m not going to do that from here. I’m going to focus on — as I did when I started — the 10 lives that were murdered. Everyday people doing everyday things. And that is why the President is going to Buffalo tomorrow.

President Joe Biden did, in fact, call out then-President Donald Trump by name when speaking about Charlottesville during the campaign, and has continued to do so since.

Watch above via The White House and Reuters.

Correction: An earlier version of this story attributed Mr. Karem’s follow-ups to Lemire.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!