The White House has long not handled criticism well, especially Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. As the general election nears, Biden and his staff will be forced to face interviews that aren’t completely filled with softball questions from the DC press corps.
If a recent interview in the swing state of North Carolina is a sign of things to come, it’s not going to go well.
Earlier in the week, Jean-Pierre spoke with Mark Garrison of 99.3 WBT, a Charlotte-based radio station, and appeared to storm out of the room when she got questions she didn’t like.
The Daily Caller writes:
During the phone interview, Garrison asked Jean-Pierre if Biden was suffering from dementia. The press secretary replied that the question was “incredibly offensive” and asked Garrison to move onto the next, before seemingly hanging up after a question on the state of the economy, a clip from the interview reveals.
“When I told a number of people that I was talking to you today — it was interesting — they all said, ‘Would you please just ask her if the president has dementia?’ So before I move on from that, does he?” Garrison asked.
“Mark, I can’t even believe you’re asking me this question. That is an incredibly offensive question to ask,” Jean-Pierre responded.
“For the past several years, the president’s physician has laid out, in a very comprehensive way, the president’s health,” Jean-Pierre continued. “This is a president that if you watch him everyday, if you really pay attention to his record and what he has done you will see exactly how focused he’s been on the American people, how historic his actions have been. So I am not going to truly, really take the premise of your question. I think it is incredibly offensive. So we can move on to the next question?”
Things only went downhill from there. When Garrison asked about how the president would win support from those frustrated with high grocery bills and gas prices, the White House spokesperson quit the interview in rage.
The interview can be heard here:
LISTEN: KJP hangs up on a Charlotte, North Carolina radio host after being asked if Joe Biden has dementia and about high gas prices and high grocery prices. pic.twitter.com/eu69qAQhVH
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) March 26, 2024
The president has long faced questions about his mental capacity, but the pressure has been turned up on the White House ever since Special Counsel Robert Hur labeled Biden a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Biden has spent years avoiding difficult interviews. In February, he declined a chance to continue the tradition of interviewing the president before the Super Bowl. It marked “the second year in a row that President Biden has turned down the opportunity, which typically draws an audience of tens of millions, even in the hours before kickoff.”
