White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre laughed when CBS News White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe grilled her about President Joe Biden’s Christmas shopping — including for ousted First Dog Commander Biden.
At Monday’s White House press briefing, O’Keefe used a recent policy announcement as a way to drill down on the president and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s shopping habits — and referenced Commander in a quippy follow-up:
ED O’KEEFE: Karine, the supply chain announcements today are rooted in all the issues that came up back in 2020, 2021, when a lot of it was rooted in shipping and holiday shopping and whatnot.I’m curious, does the President or First Lady do any online shopping? Have they had any –MS. JEAN-PIERRE: (Laughs.)ED O’KEEFE: No, seriously. Have they had any personal experience with the frustrations that American consumers across the country felt in recent years?MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, agreed, there’s been some frustrations that obviously — that the American consumers have felt recently, which is why we took those actions. You just listed them out. And they’ve had — they’ve been beneficial.I’ve talked about the containers — where we were two years ago, where 100 containers were decl- –were declined, and now we’re at 8. Right? We talked about — I talked about October 2021, as you just mentioned, to October
‘23 and how supply chain pressures — how they m- — how much they — they hurt the economy, which is why the President continues to make these announcements. This is what you’re going to hear from the President at two o’clock.Look, I can’t speak to the President or the First Lady’s shopping strategy, how they go about it, but they understand what Americans are feeling. That’s — again, that’s why we keep talking about lowering costs. That’s why we’re talking about something that’s so important, like supply chain, as it affects the economy.But, look, what we believe is the President’s action — what he’s taking — the actions that he’s taken has worked — has worked. And we see that with the holiday season — right? — with families and — and how we’ve seen lower prices coming down.ED O’KEEFE: So, no word if he’s shopping at Amazon or –MS. JEAN-PIERRE: (Laughs.) Well, I can say this.ED O’KEEFE: — Chewy for Commander or anything like that? (Laughter.)MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Well, I could say this: You saw the President on Saturday — right? –ED O’KEEFE: Shopping at small businesses.MS. JEAN-PIERRE: — on Friday, small business –ED O’KEEFE: That’s why I asked about online shopping.MS. JEAN-PIERRE: But how important it is, right?ED O’KEEFE: Right.MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Shopping for — making sure that — you know, small businesses are an important part of the economy. And you saw the President, the First Lady, and his — his family making sure that they were visiting small business on — going into the holidays.
After a slew of new biting incidents were revealed, Commander was moved to an undisclosed location away from the White House.
Watch above via The White House.