Doocy and Jean-Pierre Clash Over Whether Biden is ‘Afraid’ of China: ‘Peter You Can’t Tell Me How to Answer the Question!’
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre clashed once again, this time over President Joe Biden’s handling of China, with the Fox reporter asking if the Democrat is “afraid” of the country.
“Why is President Biden afraid of China?” Doocy asked at a press briefing on Wednesday.
“The president is not afraid of China. Did you see the president last week when we went to Ukraine, went to Kyiv. This is not a president who is afraid of anything,” Jean-Pierre said.
Doocy then cited the Chinese spy balloon recently shot down over U.S. airspace days after Biden ordered, as well as new declarations from the Department of Energy and FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledging a China lab leak could be the cause of the Covid pandemic.
“China flew a spycraft over the U.S. The president didn’t really do anything to China. And according to the FBI director, China may have created something that has killed more than 1.1 million people in this country and President Biden is not punishing them,” Doocy said.
Jean-Pierre claimed Biden took down the balloon in the safest way possible said the president wants to get to the bottom of Covid’s origins.
“But with his campaign, it was all about shutting down the virus and how hard it is for families with an empty chair at the kitchen table because of Covid. If we now know, according to the FBI director, who was most likely responsible for all those empty chairs at all those kitchen tables, why not do more to try and hold them accountable?” Doocy asked.
Jean-Pierre tried switching the topic of president Trump, leading to a tense exchange between press secretary and journalist.
“It was because of this president, that took action — by the way, the last administration did not. They did not have a comprehensive plan to actually —” Jean-Pierre said.
Doocy tried clarifying he was referring to Covid origins, but Jean-Pierre informed him he couldn’t tell her how to answer a question.
“No, no, no, no. Peter, first of all, you can’t tell me how to answer the question. I’m going to answer it for you, right? So just give me a second. So because he took those actions, he actually helped to save lives,” she said.
Jean-Pierre did not put any extra weight behind the Covid lab leak theory, claiming it’s still too early to lean towards it as the likely explanation.
“As we know, we have seen many different conclusions from the intelligence community. Some of them have made a conclusion of one side, some of them have made conclusions on the other side. Some of them say they don’t have enough information,” she said.
Watch the full exchange below:
