Karine Jean-Pierre Spars With Fox’s Peter Doocy When Asked if ‘Big Cities Are Safe’

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Peter Doocy clashed after the Fox News reporters posted a simple question regarding crime in America.

White House press briefings rarely have a dull moment between Doocy and Jean-Pierre and Monday was no different.

“Does President Biden think America’s biggest cities are safe?” Doocy asked point blank.

Jean-Pierre asked Doocy to elaborate, and the two ended up discussing a New York Times report on national crime rates.

The report shows a drop in the murder rate in 2022, though the murder rate is still 30 percent above its level from 2019.

Doocy noted thefts and robberies in major cities increased by about 20 percent in the first half of 2022. While Doocy noted several major crimes that have taken place in cities in recent months, Jean-Pierre retorted by quoting the Times analysis that “crime is complicated and multifaceted,” and that law enforcement cannot easily deal with factors like social discord and inflation driving crime up.

“This is a president who has secured historic funding to make sure law enforcement has what it needs, and he was able to do this in the face of opposition from Republicans,” Jean-Pierre said. She referred to the American Rescue Plan, arguing that it provided over $300 billion to help cities bolster law enforcement.

Doocy followed up by returning to his original question: “Does Biden think America’s big cities are safe?”

“It is not a yes or no question,” Jean-Pierre replied. “It is very much a question of what has he done…to make sure that cities — and it doesn’t matter if its a big city or a small city…What matters is that we have the funding and we have done the work, put the policy forward, to make sure these cities, big or small, have what they need to protect their community, and that’s what this president has done.”

Watch above.