Jean-Pierre Bristles at NYT Reporter Who Repeatedly Asks If Biden ‘Embarrassed’ By Balloon Shootdowns: ‘Let Me Answer!’

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre bristled at New York Times White House correspondent Michael Shear when he repeatedly asked if President Joe Biden is “embarrassed” about ordering the downing of three flying objects that may turn out to be “benign” — while also interrupting her several times.

The China spy balloon news cycle gave way this weekend to a new spate of flying objects that were shot down, which the White House says could well turn out to have been “tied to some commercial or benign purpose.”

At Tuesday’s White House briefing, Shear repeatedly asked if Biden is “embarrassed” for ordering the downing of these objects “if it turns out” they were just weather balloons:

MICHAEL SHEAR: So, two — two more balloon questions. The National Weather Service website here says that 900 — that weather balloons are released around the world from 900 locations twice a day, every single day of the year, including 92 released by the National Weather Service in the U.S.; that they fly for at least two hours a day, drift as far as 125 miles, and cover — and rise up to 100,000 feet above the ground.

If it turns out, as it looks like, that the — that the President and Mr. Trudeau sent Top Gun fighters to blow weather balloons out of the sky, is the — does the President regret that? Is he embarrassed by that?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I’m not going to get ahead of what — of any final decision. We just don’t know yet. We actually just don’t know. And as I — as I’ve said, as my colleague has — has said, from NSC, it is — it is in consideration that that could be the leading explanation here again.

MICHAEL SHEAR: And so if it is, does — is the President embarrassed by that —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: No, I get — I get —

MICHAEL SHEAR: — the idea that you would take hundreds —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I don’t know —

MICHAEL SHEAR: — of thousands of —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Okay.

MICHAEL SHEAR: — dollars of equipment and —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Let me — Michael, let me — let me answer —

MICHAEL SHEAR: Sorry.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: — let me answer the question!

I don’t think the President should be embarrassed — right? — by the fact that he took action to make sure that our air- — our airspace, civilian airspace, was safe. I don’t think that he shou- —

MICHAEL SHEAR: But if there are 90 bal- — I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I apologize.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: No, but you’re — you’re — I’m answering the question. I am. I am answering the question. Right?

The President took action because we did see that these — that these objects were in the airspace of — civilian airspace. And so, to protect the civilian airspace, the President took action. It is — and he took — he took recommendation by the Pentagon to take that action.

I don’t want to get ahead of what this — what will be the final analysis — right? — of what the objects may have been or may not have been. So, don’t want to get into — into a hypothetical here.

But, look, this is — the President does everything that he can, everything in his power — right? — to defend, to track, and to protect our airspace. And that’s what you should — that’s what you should glean from what the action — the actions that this President took.

MICHAEL SHEAR: And then one follow-up, which is: There’s a lot of criticism out there that — that what has — that what really drove the President’s decisions in the — in the latter three shootdowns was an overreaction, a political overreaction, to the criticism that he took on the Chinese spy balloon for waiting too long. In other words, that he was criticized for waiting too long in the first balloon, and so the reaction — the overreaction, the critics would say — is that he moved too quickly to shoot down the other ones before even knowing obviously what they were. How do you guys respond to that criticism?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I’ll respond to it this way: Two diff- — two different things. Right? The Chinese surveillance balloon, completely different operation, if you will; complete different, you know, situation, if you will.

It was a balloon, as you all know, that was a Chinese surveillance balloon. We wanted — the President’s number one thing was to make sure that we kept American civilians safe. He took recommendations from the Pentagon, who told — who — who said that we should follow the path, and he agreed they follow the path. But he also said, the moment that they can, to shoot it down. And that’s what occurred.

But let’s remember what — what happened while the — while the balloon was on its path. We were able to collect data from it. We’re able to protect our security data on the ground and learn from the Chinese surveillance balloon. That’s what we were able to do.

And when it got over an area where it was safe, where we were able to collect — because we are collecting the data that’s on the — the — the — I should — not the data, but the — the debris — right? — that’s on the ocean floor and learning more about its capabilities. And when we were able to do that, they shot it down.

And so we’re going to learn a lot more because of the action that the President took and because of the action that the Pentagon took — right? — with the recommendation that they provided with the President.

So that’s a different scenario. It’s not the same.

And as I just mentioned, with the objects, they were in civilian airspace. So the President took action to protect our civilian airspace. They were — the elevation was a little bit lo- — was lower. And he took that action. Two different —

MICHAEL SHEAR: But they were in the civilian airspace with —

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Two different —

MICHAEL SHEAR: — dozens, scores of balloons that are also in the civilian airspace every day.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I hear you, and I know that you’re — you just — you just read me the — whatever — the National Weather — (laughs) — data or numbers of balloons. I get that. I don’t know those numbers. That’s the first time that I’m hearing about them. I appreciate you sharing it with all of us.

But what I’m telling you is what I can give you from our — our vantage point, how we move forward. The Chinese surveillance balloon was very, very different than what we saw with these three objects.

Watch above via C-SPAN.