Here’s hoping
Karine Jean-Pierre
offers better answers about the downed Chinese balloon than she’s given on the classified documents scandal. Because ever since we learned
wasn’t the only one who had government papers in his house that he shouldn’t have, the press secretary—and not the president she serves—has been in the media crosshairs.
Every day some reporter asks about the documents. And every day Ms. Jean-Pierre offers the same answer: “I would refer you to the White House counsel’s office.”
Reporters understandably have wearied of asking questions and getting the same non-answer back. Even before classified material was found at
Delaware homes and Washington office, there were whispers that she wasn’t up to the job. But her inability to provide reporters with even the most basic information is now making it into the talk shows and headlines.
Thursday’s Washington Post, for example, ran a piece headlined, “Questioned on Biden documents, his press secretary has only one answer.” At one presser, the article noted, Ms. Jean-Pierre deflected a document question more than two dozens times with her go-to reference to the White House counsel’s office. This in turn has fueled questions about Ms. Jean-Pierre’s competence.
But messaging problems almost always are substance problems. Ms. Jean-Pierre would be thoroughly within her rights to demand that
Jeff Zients,
the new White House chief of staff, include her in all the principals meetings so she has something she can say when she goes out to face the press. In the George W. Bush White House, where I served as chief speechwriter, I was included in those meetings so that I understood the policies and could do my job laying them out in the president’s speeches. Same for the press secretary and others.
Certainly Ms. Jean-Pierre’s cluelessness has made for cringe moments. On Jan. 12, she told reporters they could “assume” the searches were completed. On Jan. 20 the FBI found more documents.
On Jan. 23,
Peter Doocy
of Fox News asked her: “When you found out that the FBI located even more classified materials in Wilmington, which four-letter word did you use?”
Amid the laughter at the press secretary’s…
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