Heated Audio: Karine Jean-Pierre Gets Grilled by Reporters as She Scrambles to Defend Biden Pardoning Hunter
On Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre treated reporters to 25 minutes of the most Orwellian gaslighting ever heard.
The spectacle occurred aboard Air Force One, where Jean-Pierre — commonly known as KJP — struggled to answer serious questions from reporters who sounded deeply skeptical both of President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, and of the dubious explanations advanced in defense of said pardon.
KJP, one of the least impressive press secretaries in White House history, found herself under severe moral and intellectual duress.
And who could blame her? After all, the president tasked her with defending the indefensible.
The remarkable sequence of questions — nearly two-dozen in all — began when a reporter noted that the president had publicly pledged not to pardon his son. The press secretary herself had often repeated that same pledge.
“Could those statements now be seen as lies?” the reporter asked.
KJP’s response almost defies belief.
“First of all, one of the things that the president always believes is to be truthful to the American people,” she said. “That is something that he always truly believes.”
In short, she offered a platitude that no reasonable person would find credible under the circumstances. Then, without adding substance, she simply rephrased the same platitude.
Later, the press secretary gave what sounded like an honest answer before inexplicably contradicting herself within seconds.
“Do you think this would have happened if [Vice President Kamala] Harris hadn’t lost the election?” a reporter asked.
“Look, I’m not gonna — I’m not gonna get into — into the election. It is a ‘no.’ I can answer that,” KJP replied.
Then, when the reporter sought clarification, the press secretary backtracked.
“I can speak to where we are today. And so I can’t speak to hypotheticals here,” KJP said only moments after speaking to the hypothetical in question.
Throughout the astonishing series of exchanges, KJP repeatedly insisted that Biden respected the justice system but issued the pardon because he believed that his political opponents had unfairly singled out his son for political persecution.
Fortunately, reporters pressed KJP on that incredible contradiction.
“He’s saying his own Justice Department is broken, Karine,” one reporter rightly observed.
The press secretary then read from the president’s official statement on the pardon, but the reporter sounded unpersuaded.
“So how deep is the rot?” the same reporter asked. “How many selective prosecutions are there at the DOJ?”
KJP chose to ignore the contradiction by insisting that she could only speak to “this particular case.”
“Two things could be true,” she later insisted. “The president does believe in the justice system and the Department of Justice. And he also believes that his son was singled out politically.”
That impossible-sounding statement seemed not to convince the reporters.
In fact, ten excruciating minutes later they returned to the issue of the contradiction.
“I don’t see how you can have it both ways,” a reporter said.
KJP gave the same impossible-sounding response.
“I don’t think it’s a contradiction. I don’t. Two things could be true. You can believe in the Department of Justice system. And you could also believe that the process was infected politically,” she said.
Finally, the reporters seemed to unnerve the press secretary when they began asking about privilege. In other words, why should less fortunate Americans conclude that the president did right by pardoning his son? Do all Americans, regardless of means, not deserve the same treatment?
“For the past five minutes I’ve been talking about why — there was a political — political — infection on this particular case is because it was Hunter Biden,” KJP stammered, undoubtedly knowing in her gut that the “privilege” question had no good answer.
Readers with a high tolerance for dishonesty may listen to audio of the exchanges in the YouTube video below. KJP’s pardon-related comments began around the 17:10 mark and continued until approximately the 42:00 mark.
To their credit, the reporters recognized gaslighting in this case and pressed the issue. More than once, KJP crumbled under the pressure.
In short, the press secretary resorted to platitudes and contradictions because she had nothing else to offer. Biden’s indefensible pardon made certain of that.
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