‘I JUST ANSWERED THE QUESTION’: WH Briefing Turns Into a Four Alarm Dumpster Fire as Jean-Pierre is Grilled About Biden Gaffe
The White House press briefing on Wednesday got chaotic when Karine Jean-Pierre was tasked with explaining a gaffe from President Joe Biden earlier in the day when he asked where a deceased congresswoman was.
During a White House conference, Biden was thanking members of Congress when he asked, Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) was. Immediate confusion ensued as Walorski died in a car accident last month.
The viral moment came up at the press briefing, and things got awkward after CBS reporter Steven Portnoy asked for a copy of the prepared remarks for Biden as Jean-Pierre tried explaining away the president’s seeming confusion.
When the topic was first brought up, Jean-Pierre claimed Biden was simply “acknowledging” the “incredible work” of Walorski, noting her family is headed to the White House on Friday. She explained that Walorski was simply “top of mind” for Biden.
Portnoy circled back to the explanation, attempting to dig deeper, suggesting Biden may have read something he didn’t understand on his teleprompter.
“I mean, you’re jumping to a lot of conclusions,” Jean-Pierre said.
After some back and forth, Portnoy asked for “prepared remarks” from the teleprompter to be released.
“I’m not understanding why that would be necessary,” Jean-Pierre said. “We always share the remarks that the president had … not really sure what that has to do with anything. I just answered the question about her being on top of mind.”
Jean-Pierre was forced to revisit the topic when another reporter noted, “The confusing part is why if she and the family is top of mind, why does the president think she’s living and in the room?”
“I think many people can speak to when you have someone top of mind, they are top of mind. Exactly that,” the press secretary said.
Things got worse when a reporter challenged this “top of mind” theory with a little John Lennon fandom.
“I have John Lennon top of my mind just about every day, but I’m not looking around for him anywhere,” the reporter said.
“When you sign a bill for John Lennon as president,” Jean-Pierre replied, “then we can have this conversation.”
Watch the clip above, via the White House.
