Peter Doocy Pushes White House About Joe Biden’s ‘Real Governor’ Comment: ‘Is Election Denying a Joke Now?’
Fox News’s Peter Doocy confronted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre over President Joe Biden’s recent joke about Democrat Terry McAuliffe being the real governor of Virginia, mocking election denialism.
On Tuesday, Biden referred to McAuliffe as the “real governor” of Virginia while name-checking him before a crowd of supporters in the state. Back in 2021, McAuliffe lost the governorship to now-Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are slamming Biden for his remarks, claiming that he is now an election denier. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) reacted on X, writing, “I thought saying something like this was a threat to democracy.” Biden appeared to be mocking GOP leaders, like failed 2022 Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake, who claims she is the true governor of Arizona — despite losing her election.
During a Wednesday press briefing at the White House, Doocy pressed Jean-Pierre over the controversy, asking, “Is election denying a joke now?”
DOOCY: Is election denying a joke now?
JEAN-PIERRE: What do you mean? You have to say more than just make a random statement.
DOOCY: Why did the president say, “Hello Virginia and the real governor, Terry McAuliffe?”
JEAN-PIERRE: He was making a joke about Terry. He was making a joke. I mean, if you play it back, it’s clearly that the president was making a joke.
DOOCY: What’s the joke?
JEAN-PIERRE: He was making a joke about McAuliffe’s previous term as governor.
DOOCY: How are you guys going to convince people, though, that this idea of denying election results is very bad if President Biden is going out and making jokes like this?
JEAN-PIERRE: He did not deny, he did not deny it. He congratulated Governor Youngkin. Matter of fact, when he won his election, he did it out of the gate. Out of the gate. Really, truly. He congratulated the governor. And not only that, we’ve had opportunities to work closely with the governor over the past couple of years. And, you know, this is a president that works across the aisle. We’ve seen that, many times. And he was making a joke.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
