Press Secretary Jen Psaki Educates NYT Reporter In Tense Exchange Over 'Bipartisanship'
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 13 commentsBy: Aliza Worthington (Crooks and Liars)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
57 min ago by Aliza Worthington Views:
Jen Psaki is not here for your insipid gotcha questions, Mike Shear.
The New York Times reporter wanted to know why President Biden had not extended what he called a "fig leaf" to Republicans. Forget that the entire premise of the question is an entire sack of BS, because if anything, it's Republicans who need to be extending an olive branch (isn't the fig leaf what you cover your genitals with?) after the last several decades, let alone the last four years, and the last two weeks. So the premise is crap, and it's also untrue, as Psaki later informs him, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Shear extended his question, naming all the things President Biden is doing to allegedly undermine his stated goal of unity and bipartisanship. "You don't have a Republican cabinet member, like President Obama, and I think President Clinton had," he said. "The executive orders that he's come out the gate have been largely designed as erasing as much of the Trump legacy as you can with executive orders, much of which the Republican party likes and agrees with," he continued.
Can we talk about the fact that a reporter for the New York Times is speaking about the racist, fascist executive orders and policies Trump put into place, as if undoing them was the thing causing disunity? As if Republicans in favor of them should be coddled and mollified in the name of unity by allowing Trump's fascist legacy to continue for one millisecond longer than possible?
Shear then listed something most Americans are in favor of, by the way — immigration reform — as causing friction. "You've put forth an immigration bill that has a path to citizenship that doesn't do much of a nod towards the border security, and a $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that folks have said has already drawn all sorts of criticism." (People DON'T want COVID relief?) Then he concluded with what I'm sure he considered a flourish, "Where is the actual action behind this idea of bipartisanship, and when are we gonna see some of those substantial outreaches that said, you know, this is something that the Republicans want to do, too?"
Press Secretary Jen Psaki was ready.
"Is unemployment insurance only an issue that Democrats want? Or do only Democrats want their kids to go back to schools? Do only Democrats want vaccines to be distributed across the country? We feel that package -- he feels that package is designed for bipartisan support," she answered much more calmly than I would have. But she wasn't done.
"I would also say we've had some positive developments on our confirmations, and our nominees. Last night, as you saw, the president's nominee, now confirmed, first female leader of the intelligence community was confirmed with a vote of 85-10, 84-10, you can check me on that, but an overwhelming vote," she said. "We've seen progress today on the nomination and hopeful confirmation of Lloyd Austin. So, there is movement supported by both sides of the aisle and members of both parties," declared my new best friend.
Then, she finished him.
"I think if you talk to Republicans on the Hill, which I know many of you do, they would say they are not looking for something symbolic. they are looking for engagement, they're looking to have a conversation, they're looking to have a dialogue. That's exactly what he's going to do."
BOOM.
Yeah, I'm gonna really enjoy these press briefings.
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The progressives should be the ones questioning Biden about his policy choices, not the Republicans. He is a centrist. If that isnt good enough for conservatives right now, they can go take a hike.
She's better than Spicer, hmmm?
She’s violating Biden’s New law by not wearing a mask. Her justification for Biden getting caught violating his new law was “he’s celebrating.”
She’s lucky the media will treat her with kid gloves and accept whatever she tells them, because she wouldn’t survive that kind of insipidity with a press that held her to account.
Considering her claim to fame was getting caught editing the tape of a a state department briefing to remove evidence that she was lying, you can see why Biden picked her.
What else does your crystal ball say?
Jen Psaki is a breath of fresh air.
Actually, Psaki didn't appear to answer any of Shear's questions. She deflected them with actions Biden was taking that didn't have anything to do with bipartisanship but, rather, things Biden was going to do with or without Republican support, but were things Republicans wouldn't object to anyway. In other words, she took issues that Republicans had no objections to, such as getting kids back in school and vaccine distribution, and called that bipartisanship.
Shear's questions were pointing out the fact that Biden was not, in fact, seeking unity or bipartisanship on issues that were important to Republicans that differed from the Democrat positions. That, so far, Biden seems to have no intention of seeking unity or bipartisanship based on his actions to date, none of which has sought input from Republicans.
So, I'm not really sure why you guys think Psaki has a win here. She totally deflected the question.
“Actually, Psaki didn't appear to answer any of Shear's questions.”
that was one day after she promised transparency. Maybe the questions were of the type that we don’t deserve to know?
Given her history, she'll just go back and delete the question from the transcript to avoid looking bad.
Couldn't say. To me, this just seemed like typical Press Secretary non-answer of just about any previous Secretary you could name. They all have done it.
I'll take that over flat out lies. Going back to dodging is an improvement lol. God our politics suck.
I was listening to this press conference and, to me, this exchange didn't come off anywhere near as dramatic and confrontational as this seed makes it out to be.
The premise of his question is idiotic to begin with. He is in office specifically because he wasn't going to be Donald Trump and was going to work to undo as much of what Trump had done as he could. That is why his supporters voted for him. I mean, sure if he wants to make it certain that the Dems lose the midterms and he loses reelection in 4 years, then yeah, leave Trump's Eos and policies in place and offer up those "fig leaves".
lost me when the author wrote "racist and fascist executive orders".