‘Why Do You Think Americans Are So Down On President Biden?’: Doocy Grills KJP On Poor Polling

7 months ago

During a White House press briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Biden’s poll numbers.

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Transcript

00:00 Thanks, Karine. Why do you think Americans are so down on President Biden right now?

00:05 What do you mean?

00:06 I know you don't like to talk about polls like the 516 swing states that he is losing

00:13 right now to somebody who is a criminal defendant, but more broadly, it doesn't seem like anything

00:19 you guys are doing is making him more popular. Why do you think that is?

00:24 So you mentioned a criminal defendant. Your words, not mine. So I want to be super mindful

00:29 about how I answer this question because obviously that criminal defendant is also

00:35 in the race for 2024 election, so I'm going to be super mindful there.

00:39 I will speak more broadly to what the American people are going through. Like, we understand.

00:47 We are sensitive enough and open-minded enough to understand that this is, that not just this

00:54 country but globally, people have had to deal with a pandemic and coming out of that pandemic.

01:01 We understand that even, you know, you think about gas prices and because of Putin's war,

01:08 what that has occurred that led to gas prices increasing. And the president had a lot to deal

01:14 with when he walked in. A lot. A lot of crises. And this is a president that took that very,

01:20 very seriously and took action. The American Rescue Plan. No Republicans voted for that,

01:25 but we ended up trying to work to get an economy that's fairer for all and make sure that we don't

01:32 leave people behind and creating 15 million jobs and an unemployment rate that's under 4%.

01:38 We understand that people are still feeling this. We get that. And we're not, we're not blind to

01:44 that. That's why you hear the president pretty regularly announcing how he is going to lower

01:49 costs for the American people, whether it's big pharma trying to lower healthcare costs,

01:53 expanding ACA for those who truly need it, or it is making sure that we get rid of junk fees

02:01 that cost Americans a lot of money every year. So look, we know it's going to take a little bit

02:07 of time. We get that. And we are going to continue to, it's not going to stop us from talking about

02:12 it. And it's also not going to stop us from talking about the contrast that we see from GOP,

02:17 Republican congressional members who want to do the opposite of what the president is trying to

02:21 get done. Cutting social security, Medicare, Medicare, Medicaid. That is what they're

02:26 talking about. Slashing taxes for billionaires and corporations. That's not what this president

02:31 wants to do. He wants to make sure that we're building an economy from the bottom up, middle

02:35 out. And again, we get it. We get that prices are too high for Americans and that's what we're

02:40 going to continue to do the work. I get that you understand that people are hurting right now.

02:45 Why is it that nothing you're doing to address their concerns is working?

02:49 What I'm saying is we're going to continue to do the work. I can't speak to the polls, right? Those

02:56 are for folks who are experts who can do a deep dive and look into that and speak to them. What

03:01 I can speak to is we understand what the American people is feeling. We understand what they're

03:06 going through. That's why we're going to continue to do the work. 301 tariff, that's part of it,

03:12 right? Making sure that we're protecting American workers, making sure that we're protecting

03:15 American businesses. That's the work that the president's going to focus on and we're going

03:19 to continue to move in that way. More broadly, then, have you considered in the White House

03:24 that some of President Biden's recent policy positions could be a turnoff to the people

03:31 that used to like him? So here, I would disagree with you there because a lot of the policies that

03:38 the president is pushing forward are incredibly popular. They are. They are student debt,

03:43 even though you have Republicans who stopped the president on moving with his plan on student debt.

03:48 That's actually very popular with Americans. Fighting Big Pharma, that's popular with

03:52 Americans, right? Making sure that we lower costs on health care, that's popular with Americans.

03:57 So what the president is actually doing is popular with what majority of Americans want to do,

04:04 even in protecting reproductive rights, something that Republicans are not on the right side of

04:08 history. You think about what extreme elected officials want to do. The president wants to

04:14 protect and make sure that we actually are giving a woman a right to make really difficult decisions

04:21 on their health care. So that part I certainly disagree with you on.

‘Why Do You Think Americans Are So Down On President Biden?’: Doocy Grills KJP On Poor Polling

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