‘Was It Personally Insulting?’: Karine Jean-Pierre Pressed On Biden’s Reaction To Debate Criticism

3 months ago

During Friday’s press gaggle aboard Air Force One, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about President Biden’s reaction to reactions about his debate performance.

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00:00Any reaction from him to the reaction to his performance last night?

00:04Look, I think the president, and I said this yesterday, the president always takes an opportunity

00:09when he's in front of an audience, when he knows that millions of Americans are going

00:13to tune in to hear directly from him, he's going to take that opportunity to lay that

00:18out.

00:19Yes, did he have a bit of a slow start?

00:22You heard from the vice president last night, yes.

00:25But as the time went on, he certainly made up some of that, right, and probably faster

00:31than most would have, and laid out his vision and was very clear about certain parts of

00:38issues that the American people care about, whether it's abortion, immigration, the things

00:43that you hear us talk about all the time, the contrasts that we make with extreme Republicans

00:47and congressional members and what they're trying to do on the other side.

00:51And so he certainly heard that from him today.

00:54And so, look, the president is going to always take the opportunity, again, to be very clear,

01:00to be very concise about what he's doing on behalf of the American people.

01:04There will be many, many opportunities.

01:06We move on.

01:07And you'll hear more from the president, obviously, later today.

01:10Was it personally insulting to him to have all these fellow Democrats come out and say

01:15you need to step aside?

01:17No, I'm not.

01:18You know, look, people are going to have their opinion.

01:21I'm going to be very careful, right, because it was a debate.

01:24I'm not going to have the hatchet piece of that.

01:26We respect, we respect, you know, our fellow, our fellow Democrats, obviously, part of our

01:31party and their opinion.

01:32But you heard, you heard Michael talk about the folks who were on TV today and earlier

01:39this morning, talk about the president and his performance and how he's a president that

01:44we need today.

01:45He's a president that's going to continue to lead the way on really critical, important

01:49issues that Americans care about, truly that Americans care about.

01:52This week alone, we, we, we, we marked the Dobbs anniversary, right, two years of when

01:59the former president put three extreme, extreme members on the court, individual on the court,

02:04and they overturned Roe v. Wade.

02:06And look what it's caused.

02:07It caused chaos with I.V.S. contraception.

02:09And you have heard us, the president and the vice president, continue to speak to that.

02:14And we are with the majority of Americans while, you know, extreme Republicans want

02:18to put national bans.

02:19That's what you're going to continue to hear us fighting for everyday Americans, the economy.

02:23We understand how Americans are still feeling the pinch, but what the president has done

02:28this last three and a half years is work to get the economy back on its feet.

02:32And we see that with unemployment under 4 percent.

02:34We see the amount of record amount of jobs that this president has able to be created,

02:39more than 15 million jobs.

02:40And so we're going to, that's going to be our focus.

02:42Our focus is going to be how do we create, continue to provide that breathing room that

02:47you hear the president talk about for American people, fight for freedom, fight for democracy.

02:52And so that's, that is, I think, the contrast that you saw last night and what the president

02:57is going to do moving forward.

02:58Do you think the president does better or is more comfortable in moments that are scripted

03:01like the rally earlier today, as opposed to the debate when he has to think on his feet

03:07a bit more?

03:08I'm just going to repeat what the president said today.

03:10He understands, look, he's not as smooth as he used to be on the debate stage.

03:14He doesn't speak as smoothly as he used to be.

03:16I mean, you heard him say and acknowledge, acknowledge where he is today.

03:22And and but the thing that he ended with, which I think is so important, which I keep

03:26saying over and over to all of you, is he's he knows he's going to fight for democracy.

03:31He's going to fight for freedom.

03:33And he knows exactly how to do that.

03:35And you see it with his record in the last three and a half years.

03:38I think the record that he has been able to do, whether it's legislation, historic pieces

03:42of legislation to get things done, I think that speaks for itself.

03:47And so this is a president that's going to continue to do that, continue to do that.

‘Was It Personally Insulting?’: Karine Jean-Pierre Pressed On Biden’s Reaction To Debate Criticism

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