Fox News Reporter Asks Psaki if There Has Been ‘Retribution’ Against Staffer Who Offended Joe Manchin

Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki if there has been any “retribution” against a staffer who offended West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.

Psaki held a briefing with reporters on Wednesday, during which Heinrich asked about the fallout from Manchin’s announcement he would not back President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan.

Heinrich said “we now know that he ultimately pulled the plug in that interview on Sunday because he was upset with White House staff naming him singularly in the Thursday statement from the President. And we’ve been told about some of his objections to that that were shared with the White House.”

“Has the staffer who is supposedly responsible for putting his name in there — have they faced any retribution for this or have been spoken to about it?” Heinrich asked.

Psaki delivered a lengthy no comment that concluded with “we’re going to spend less time looking in the rearview mirror and more about looking forward.”

Heinrich followed up by asking if there will be a “shift in strategy since this all blew up over bullying?”

“Well, again, I wouldn’t characterize it that way, Jacqui,” Psaki replied. “But I would tell you that Senator Manchin is somebody who has won many tough — tough foughts — fights in West Virginia. He is — comes proudly from a coalmining family. He’s a pretty outspoken advocate for the things he believes in and the things he doesn’t, and I would doubt he’s a withering flower on the side of the road.”

Following Manchin’s announcement, Psaki put out a scathing statement on Biden’s behalf, and Manchin made his complaint about White House staff to a local radio host on Monday.

“It’s not the president, it’s the staff. And they drove some things and put some things out that were absolutely inexcusable,” Manchin said.

Watch above via C-Span.