The White House briefing room erupted on Wednesday when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a reporter she was being “incredibly rude” after she asked about the president’s mental state after he appeared to call out for late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) who was killed in a car crash in early August.
“And I want to thank all of you here, including bipartisan elected officials like Representative McGovern, Senator Braun, Senator Booker, Representative – Jackie, you here? Where’s Jackie?” Biden asked while speaking at a White House conference on hunger, nutrition and health. “I didn’t think she was gonna be here.”
Jean-Pierre was pressed on Biden’s apparent gaffe during a press briefing.
“Look, [Biden] was at an event, you all saw, you all watched, which is why you’re asking the question, right, where he was calling out again, congressional leaders, bipartisan leadership that we have seen on this particular issue,” Jean-Pierre said. “And, again, he’s going to see her family in just two days, and she was on top of mind. I mean, that is, that is not an unusual scenario there.”
“Karine, I have John Lennon top of mind just about everyday but I’m not looking around for him anywhere,” Newsmax’s James Rosen followed up.
“When you sign a bill for John Lennon as President then we can have this conversation,” Jean-Pierre responded.
“These moments of confusion are happening — Americans are watching this and are concerned. What do you say to that? This is a legitimate question, we need to have some answer,” one reporter could be heard saying as the room breaks out into questions.
A male reporter then begins to ask a separate question and is cut off by Jean-Pierre who says, “I’m sorry, someone was yelling over you.”
The female reporter, however, once again begins to speak at the same time as the other male reporter, demanding answers on Biden’s cognitive abilities.
“It is not your turn to speak and you’re being rude to your colleagues,” the press secretary said. “You’re yelling over your colleague so that is incredibly rude.”
The reporter could be heard shouting back, “[We’re] asking about the mental acuity of the president … [You are] being rude to us by not answering … ‘Top of mind’ is not an answer.”
Watch:
Walorski helped to introduce bipartisan legislation in Oct. 2021 to “convene a second national White House conference on food, nutrition, hunger and health,” alongside Democratic Massachusetts Rep. James P. McGovern, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and Republican Indiana Sen. Mike Braun.
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