Jen Psaki Says She’s Glad Trump Watched Biden’s Speech: ‘Maybe He Learned Something About Meeting the Moment’
In response to former President Donald Trump’s statement, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that she hoped Trump “learned something” from watching President Joe Biden’s speech.
Ms. Psaki held a briefing with reporters on Thursday just hours after Biden delivered a speech at the Capitol Thursday morning to mark the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, in which he leveled blistering criticism of Trump.
One of the first questions during the briefing was about the lengthy statement Trump issued slamming the president’s speech. Among other things, Trump wrote that “This political theater is all just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed.”
NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker noted that Trump “did respond to President Biden’s speech and he called it quote, political theater,” and asked “What is your response?”
With a smile, Psaki replied, “Well, it looks like he saw the speech,” and cracked, “I guess that’s good news.”
She carried the bit through the rest of her response with a sarcastic hope that Trump might “learn something” from the speech:
Maybe he learned something about what it looks like to meet the moment in the country, to meet the moment where people are hurting. They’re thinking of the pain. All of the people who worked in that Capitol, who were there a year ago, whether they were members of Congress, their staff, janitors, or journalists, and to speak to who we can be and call for people’s higher powers to reach that.
Maybe he learned something from that. I guess we’ll see.
Psaki was also asked why President Biden didn’t mention Trump by name, despite the fact that much of the speech was devoted to denouncing Trump. Psaki referred reporters to Biden’s own response on that matter.
After his speech, Biden told reporters that he “did not want to turn it into a contemporary political battle between me and the president, it’s way beyond that. It’s way beyond that.”
Watch above via C-Span.
