‘Putting Words in My Mouth’: Biden Comms Chief Kate Bedingfield Bristles at CBS News Reporter Over Refugees
White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield objected when CBS News White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe paraphrased a response to a question about Ukrainian refugees.
Bedingfield made her debut conducting a White House press briefing Tuesday, during which O’Keefe — following up on a line of questioning from Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich — asked about the Ukrainian refugees that the U.S. has agreed to accept, and why they are exempt from Title 42.
Bedingfield was not satisfied with O’Keefe’s characterization of the answer, repeatedly accusing him of “putting words in my mouth”:
MR. O’KEEFE: I know you said just now you don’t have any news on Title 42, which expires on Friday — or at least the current use of it. When you were — when we were in Europe, the President announced that he’s admitting 100,000 Ukrainian asylum seekers. They are exempt from Title 42. Why?
MS. BEDINGFIELD: So, obviously, we are looking at an extreme crisis in Ukraine. I think it’s — it is — it is easy to look at the incredible volume of displacement and the duress that people are under in Ukraine and understand that we need to make — we need to make efforts to ensure that we are moving to get them to places that are safe.
What I can say more broadly about our efforts to — to bring 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the country is that, you know, we anticipate that most of these refugees will want to stay closer to home, will want to stay in Europe. But we are making every — we are putting forward this effort to ensure that we’re able to — to accommodate 100,000.
Obviously, on the specifics of that, I would have to refer you to the State Department on the specific workings. But it is important — as you heard the President say when we were overseas, it’s important for the United States to do its part and for those countries bordering Ukraine to not be the only ones to shoulder the burden. You heard him talk about that while we were on the ground in Warsaw.
MR. O’KEEFE: Understood. So the policy decision has been made that the war in Ukraine and the displacement of those people is more urgent to the United States than the displacement of millions of people due to earthquakes, hurricanes, and political strife in this hemisphere?
MS. BEDINGFIELD: I think that’s a little bit putting words in my mouth. My point was only that we’re —
MR. O’KEEFE: That’s how it would be interpreted though —
MS. BEDINGFIELD: — that that’s —
MR. O’KEEFE: — by immigration advocates and others on this side of the world.
MS. BEDINGFIELD: That’s a little bit putting words in my mouth. All I’m saying is that we have put forward a process to allow a hundred thou- — to bring 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the country, given the incredible duress and the crisis that they’re facing in their homeland.
Watch above via The White House and Fox News.
