While speaking at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health last week, President Biden Joe Biden called out for a Republican lawmaker who died over the summer.
Now critics say that instead of acknowledging that this was another one of Biden’s mental lapses, the White House is attempting to cover up the truth.
According to Fox News, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has told reporters at least 14 times that he wasn’t confused about whether or not the deceased congresswoman was alive or present in the room.
“Jackie are you here? Where’s Jackie?”
Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) died in a car accident in August pic.twitter.com/cHc3b7zPmE
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) September 28, 2022
Making it worse
One unnamed White House reporter who spoke with Fox News expressed incredulity over Jean-Pierre’s attempt to whitewash Biden’s conduct.
“I have no idea why senior communications officials tried to defend Biden’s inexcusable comment, but if you acknowledge one slip, it validates the rest of questionable moments this president has had,” the journalist was quoted as saying.
Another White House reporter expressed similar sentiments, saying, “I think people were taken aback because the gaffe was not the real egregious part.”
“It was the subsequent insistence that he hadn’t made a gaffe. And rather than just saying, ‘Hey, he made a mistake, like we all do,’ I mean, they just seem to make it worse again and again,” the reporter added.
Wasn’t a high point
“It certainly wasn’t a high point. When you see that cascade effect, that shows reporters are onto something,” he or she concluded.
Fox News noted that in one instance, Jean-Pierre said that the deceased lawmaker was “top of mind” for the president because he had previously met with her family.
“I don’t think that’s unusual,” Jean-Pierre insisted. “I feel like many of us have gone through that particular time where someone is on top of mind, and you call them out.”
That’s unlikely to sway the president’s critics, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. He told Fox News that Biden’s “diminished capacity is so blatantly obvious that even the White House Press corps couldn’t hide their concern.”