White House Calls Out GOP for Editing Psaki Comments About Fox News and Crime ‘Out of Context’

Tommy ChristopherFeb 1st, 2022, 11:26 am
 

Several White House staffers called out the GOP for their editing of a social media clip featuring White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s recent comments about Fox News’ coverage of crime under President Joe Biden.

At issue is a portion of Psaki’s recent appearance on the Pod Save America podcast, which has also generated some friction with Fox News personalities.

Jon Lovett asked Psaki about Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy, and what Lovett called “Gotcha” questions. Here’s Psaki’s full response (transcript via The White House):

You know, I am not here to work for Peter Doocey or Fox. But I will say, that, you know, if you look at how it’s portrayed, how my answers are portrayed, even when I say, no, we don’t think crime is good, and here’s all the things we’ve done, including, the thing that makes, I think that makes Republicans crazy, just anecdotally, by the hate tweets I get on Twitter when I say this, is that they voted against funding for the local COPS programs, because the American Rescue Plan, also that Biden has supported $300 billion more in funding, and at the same time, he also thinks we need police reform–it’s like they don’t know what to do with that. But every time we say that, it makes them crazy.

You know, I think it speaks to, if you look at Fox on a daily basis, do you remember the four boxes that we had on all the TVs, which is on my TV, right now, so right now, just to give you a sense, CNN: “Pentagon: As many as 8,500 troops on heightened alert.” Ok, true, same on MSNBC, CNBC is doing their own thing about the market, and then, on Fox, is Jeanine Pirro talking about “soft-on-crime consequences.” I mean, what does that even mean? So there’s an alternate universe on some coverage. What’s scary about it is a lot of people watch that.

And they think that the president isn’t doing anything to address people’s safety in New York, and that couldn’t be further from the truth, or in other places.

The House GOP Twitter account posted a 32-second clip from that section, and characterized it this way:

That did not sit well with the White House comms team, members of which took to Twitter to call the GOP out for excising parts of the exchange that undermined the GOP narrative.

White House Rapid Response Director Mike Gwin shared a transcript of the full exchange, and wrote “Why did
@HouseGOP deceptively edit out @PressSec saying that the lie that we don’t take crime seriously ‘couldn’t be further from the truth’?”

“Maybe the same reason they cut Jen calling out their Members for voting against @POTUS’ additional money for local law enforcement” he added.

Psaki herself got in on the action, writing that “my point was that it is often distorted for political purpose despite the facts. The
@HouseGOP then cut my comments out of context (see italics) proving the point.”

Republican comms specialist Matt Whitlock, who is a former NRSC spokesman, chimed in to object — but not to the accusation the remarks were taken out of context.

Whitlock had earlier claimed that Psaki’s response meant she had “very publicly laughed off rising crime rates.”

Gwin and White House Deputy Press Secretaries Chris Meagher and Andrew Bates then tag-teamed Whitlock

Watch Psaki’s full remarks above via Pod Save America.

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