Karine Jean-Pierre seethes at reporter who asked if Biden’s post-election lunch with Harris was ‘awkward’
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked Tuesday whether President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ post-election lunch at the White House was “awkward.”
Harris returned to the White House complex on Tuesday for the first time since her painful election loss to former President Donald Trump.
Aides stood on the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to catch a glimpse of the now former Democratic nominee, who told them to keep the faith before walking over for her lunch with Biden.
‘I don’t even understand it. Why would it be awkward? Why would it be difficult?’ Jean-Pierre responded to Fox News’ Peter Doocy. ‘Why would you characterize it as clumsy? They have regular lunches. They meet and talk regularly.’
Jean-Pierre then pointed to Biden and Harris’ joint appearance Monday to mark Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not appreciate being asked a question by Fox News’ Peter Doocy about whether President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ post-election lunch was clumsy’
“Did you both see the show of power?” she asked.
While she said she didn’t want to comment on the “premise of this question,” she said Biden and Harris “had lunch today.”
“They had lunch many times,” she added. “They had the opportunity to discuss the last 70 days of this administration, how important it is to get things done for the American people, and that’s their focus. That’s really their focus.”
On Monday, Harris looked somber as she walked alongside the 81-year-old president to a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
But it was the stone-faced first lady Dr. Jill Biden as she sat next to Harris, sparking all kinds of online chatter.
Although there was some bad blood between the two women after Biden’s first debate appearance alongside Harris in Miami in June 2019, Dr. Biden officially campaigned for Harris ahead of last Tuesday’s election.
As for the president, he was largely sidelined late in the campaign cycle for accidentally calling Trump supporters “trash.”
Vice President Kamala Harris waves to crowds of aides who greeted her return to the White House complex from the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Tuesday
President Joe Biden sits in the Oval Office on Tuesday. He and Vice President Kamala Harris had lunch at the White House on Tuesday, a week after she lost the presidential election to former President Donald Trump.
The White House insisted he called a Trump-linked comedian “trash” after the comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, insulted the entire island of Puerto Rico during the Republican rally at Madison Square Garden.
There was even talk of a fight between the Biden press shop and the White House stenographer’s office after Biden’s press aides changed punctuation in a transcript to suggest that Biden called just one Trump supporter — the comedian — “trash,” as opposed to every Trump supporter.
The now president-elect compared it to Hillary Clinton calling his MAGA movement stalwarts “deplorables” prior to her 2016 loss to him.
Eight years later, the Democrats are again licking their wounds.
Trump heads to Washington DC on Wednesday for rallies on Capitol Hill and then to the White House for the traditional meeting between the current president and the president-elect.