White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre turned a lot of heads during a press conference late last week when she responded to a reporter’s question about something President Joe Biden said that was incorrect.
Jean-Pierre was asked about something Biden said when he was commemorating the late New Mexico governor and Clinton-era Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.
“The initial statement from the president about the passing of Governor Bill Richardson included condolences for his wife of 50 years, Barbara, and their daughter, Heather. That line about Heather, the daughter, has been removed because they didn’t have a daughter named Heather — or a daughter. So can you walk us through how these press releases are fact-checked; who signs off on them in the end; and then, in this case, how this error was made?” a reporter asked KJP.
“So, look, we apologize for the error,” Jean-Pierre began. “Certainly, that is not something that, you know, we want to do, right? We want to make sure that we get this information out clearly and in a straightforward way to the American people. So, that was not done intentionally. And certainly, when we realized that error, it was removed from the website.”
She then turned heads with this: “We do have fact-checkers here. We do have multiple people who take a look at — at the press releases, especially from the president. This was just a miss, unfortunately. And we apologize for that miss.”
The exchange was posted online by the research wing of the Republican National Committee.
Karine Jean-Pierre apologizes for issuing a press release with condolences for former Gov. Bill Richardson's non-existent daughter named Heather:
"We do have fact checkers here" pic.twitter.com/a9ECf6i7ud
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 6, 2023
White House staffers either have to mute President Biden or turn off his remarks when he is publicly speaking since his administration began.
“It’s not that they’re indifferent to what their boss has to say. Indeed, their livelihoods are directly invested in it. Rather, they’re filled with anxiety that he’s going to take questions from the press and veer of the West Wing’s carefully orchestrated messaging,” reported POLITICO’s self-described West Wing Playbook.
One current official told POLITICO, “I know people who habitually don’t watch it live for that reason,” referring to the president’s appearances. The inside scoop gives more context to situations such as when Biden quickly leaves a podium after remarks or when he said, “I’m not supposed to take any questions but go ahead” after addressing FEMA.
Biden has been referred to as a “gaffe machine,” and then-press secretary Jen Psaki admitted to Democratic strategist David Axelrod on his podcast that “a lot of times, we say, ‘Don’t take questions” to the President.
On the campaign trail, he attempted to make a self-deprecating quip to minimize the embarrassment. “No one ever doubts that I mean what I say. The problem is, I sometimes say all that I mean.”
POLITICO reports, “The 2020 election may have proved Biden’s point. But lately, his verbal miscues have been causing headaches for him and his team.” Specifically, “Biden has delivered several self-inflicted wounds during freewheeling Q&A sessions that required immediate clean-up.”
For example, “on Afghanistan, he told reporters that a Taliban takeover of the country was ‘highly unlikely,’ said Al Qaeda was ‘gone’ from Afghanistan when it wasn’t, and declared that he’d seen ‘no question of our credibility’ from allies when there had been a lot.”
“Biden has even flubbed scripted remarks, such as when he said the administration had evacuated 90 percent of Americans from Afghanistan when he was supposed to say 98 percent.”
