Good days are few and far between for White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
But this was an exceptionally bad day at the office for Jean-Pierre.
And Karine Jean-Pierre wanted to run and hide after this humiliating public display.
At a recent White House press briefing Jean-Pierre faced tough questions about Joe Biden’s decision to visit East Palestine, Ohio.
Over a year ago Biden promised to visit East Palestine, a working-class community where a train derailment led to toxic chemicals spilling into the air, soil and water.
But Biden never followed through.
Critics suspected Biden didn’t care enough to visit since the town is located in an area that Donald Trump won overwhelmingly.
Trump shamed Biden by showing in East Palestine shortly after the accident and brought bottles of water and other supplies.
Trump also appeared at a local McDonald’s and bought everyone lunch telling residents of the town that he didn’t forget about them as president, and he wouldn’t forget about them if he wins re-election.
Biden’s refusal to visit East Palestine punctured two great myths about Joe Biden – that he is an empathetic politician, and he keeps in touch with his working-class roots.
The indifference to the plight of the people of East Palestine disabused the American people of any notion that either of those were true.
When the White House announced the trip, a reporter had a simple question for Jean-Pierre.
“Next month, when the president is in East Palestine, will he drink the water there?” the reporter asked Jean-Pierre.
Jean-Pierre broke down and avoided the question knowing full well the federal government’s response to the disaster was inadequate.
“I mean, look, what I can tell you is, the president’s focus has been to do everything that he can to support this community from day one,” Jean-Pierre stammered. “We get what’s going on on the ground. We understand what’s going — that’s why we’ve had the EPA, that’s why we had DOT, that’s why we had HHS, that’s why we’ve had FEMA on the ground.”
“You know, this is not about some sort of, like, political stunt here. This is not about — this is not what this is about. This is about this president being a president for everyone and showing up, showing up for this community. That’s what this is about,” Jean-Pierre continued. “I’m not going to get into some sort of political stunts about drinking — about drinking water. What we’re gonna focus about is making sure they have what they need, and the president was invited by the mayor, by community leaders, he’s going to show up. He always said he would be there when it was the most helpful,” Jean-Pierre continued.
Jean-Pierre claiming Biden wanted to avoid “stunts” was especially rich since the decision to visit East Palestine one year after the train derailment is in and of itself a stunt designed to boost Joe Biden’s sagging poll numbers that find him trailing Donald Trump both nationally and in the battleground states.
