Saturday, 16 November 2024

Contrast: WashPost Demands WH Censor Trump, Doocy & Wegmann Grill KJP on Kamala

Newsbusters
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It was textbook case of contrasts during Monday’s White House press briefing as, on the one hand, one of The Washington Post’s lead Kamala Harris bootlickers called for the federal government — the Biden-Harris regime — to directly interfere in the 2024 election and censor Donald Trump and X’s Elon Musk and a softball from USA Today about Biden being wistful ahead of the Democratic National Convention.

On the other, there were reporters like Fox’s Peter Doocy, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, and Fox Business’s Edward Lawrence who pressed the ever-inept Karine Jean-Pierre on the border crisis, Vice President Kamala Harris’s role in the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Harris stealing Trump’s policy idea on ending taxes on tips, respectively.

Starting with The Post, reporter Cleve T. Wootson Jr. had the gall to kvetch that Trump’s interview with X’s Musk was an example of how “misinformation on Twitter is not just a campaign issue,” but “I think that misinformation on Twitter is not just a campaign issue.”

He then actually wondered what the White House would do to thwart “the spread of that” or even “intervene”:

Also on the side of the stupid ledger was this from USA Today’s David Jackson: “I’m just curious if you could talk a little bit about what it’s gonna be like for the President to be giving this speech knowing that, if things have gone a little bit differently, he would be giving an accepted speech for a second term?”

Poor, poor, Joe.

Thankfully, a few reporters in the room actually still do their jobs on a consistent basis when a liberal administration is in power.

Doocy Time kicked off with a back-and-forth about whether President Biden is “mad” at former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for playing a lead role in shoving him out:

Doocy then pivoted to a question that Jean-Pierre pretended to not understand, forcing him to restate it three times:

[H]ow long have you guys known that Vice President Harris does not think President Biden is doing a good job at the border?...Well, she’s now promising to hire thousands more border agents than there are bow under President Biden....How long have you guys known that Vice President Harris does not think that President Biden is effective with his border policy?

Jean-Pierre bemoaned Doocy “making a huge jump” in “assuming” “something” that doesn’t exist.

“She has a campaign ad where she is saying they need more Border Patrol agents. If President Biden is doing such a good job, why do they need any more [agents],” he added.

Of course, she punted by blaming Republicans for not taking President Biden’s border deal.

Doocy also worked in a third topic. This time? The mysterious Las Vegas Police radio conversations on July 17 when Biden fell ill.

Wegmann immediately followed with a crucial exchange about whether Harris is just as responsible for the Afghanistan withdrawal as Biden:

In a hilarious exchange, Wegmann later asked Jean-Pierre to name what Biden views “as the Vice President’s biggest achievement during their time in office together.” Of course, Jean-Pierre talked in an esoteric manner about how “they’ve been partners” on all topics since day one.

Wegmann dutifully then observed: “So, there’s not a specific policy achievement. It’s a comprehensive whole?” Jean-Pierre couldn’t even rebut it, mumbling and bumbling her way through a restating of her previous answer.

As for Lawrence, he first borrowed some of Wegmann’s approach. This time, he applied it to the economy:

This led right into a back-and-forth on the taxing tips hubbub, first wondering why hasn’t the administration proposed this over the last three and a half years. Jean-Pierre stuck to her initial answers from earlier in the briefing (see the embedded tweets below), arguing Harris is genuine and insinuating Trump isn’t. 

Lawrence had a key question none of the other tip questions below brought up (which Jean-Pierre ducked): “So, the IRS last month released their report saying, hey, this — this is how if you have an extension for taxes, you can file taxes on your tips. The President’s budget relies on the taxes from tips. So, when did this idea come about?”

And, in one comical exchange, the Washington Examiner’s Haisten Willis wondered when Harris would be speaking to reporters;

In between the above characters, there were middling questions about the tax tips issue. The Associated Press’s Zeke Miller, ABC’s Selina Wang, and CBS’s Weijia Jiang only gently went down that road:

 

 

To see the relevant transcript from the August 12 briefing, click here.


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