‘That’s Your Opinion’: White House Spox Fires Back at Reporter For Question on Internal ‘Gossip’
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre fired back at CBS News senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe on Thursday over a report the previous day by O’Keefe’s outlet about disagreement within the Biden administration over ceasing the use of a health policy related to immigration.
“We obtained a nine-page Homeland Security plan from July that would end the Title 42 border policy for families with children by, among other things, offering Covid-19 vaccines to all adult family members,” said O’Keefe during the White House press briefing. “But, according to several presidential appointees, the plan was scratched because top White House officials, including Susan Rice, expressed concerns about the political optics of unwinding this pandemic policy as the delta variant spread.”
O’Keefe went on to ask, “What would you say to critics of the administration’s immigration policy and medical officials who say Title 42 is junk science. Even Democrats … [say] political considerations are guiding this administration’s border policies? ”
Jean-Pierre declined to “get into or respond to the gossip” as “that’s not something we’re going to do.”
“You know every single member of this administration,” she continued, but O’Keefe cut her off and said, “Several political appointees, I wouldn’t call it gossip.”
Jean-Pierre snapped at O’Keefe: “Okay. That’s your opinion.”
She continued:
But every single member of this administration from the president on down is committed to building a fair and orderly immigration system. That’s what we’re committed to doing. And in a short period ever time, the Biden administration continues to make considerable progress on turning the page and undoing the chaos, the cruelty and the misplaced priorities of the Trump administration. So our vision for immigration is rooted in ideas that work like addressing root causes, expanding refugee processing, investing in the asylum process, creating a fair and orderly pathway. The previous administration separated families and wasted tax dollars and on an ineffective wall. We have been trying to undo that. We have been trying to make sure that we do it in a moral way, in a humanitarian way and that’s going to be the focus of this administration.
O’Keefe followed up and asked if “political considerations are a part of” the administration’s immigration policy.”
“I’m just not going to speak to … like I said, we believe it’s gossip and I’m not going to speak to it,” said Jean-Pierre.
Watch above, via Fox News.
