White House reporters pressed Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday regarding President Joe Biden’s noticeable absence as lawmakers in the House grapple with a spending bill to avert a government shutdown.
CBS’s Willie Inman questioned why the president has not directly addressed the ongoing debate over a continuing resolution to fund the government.
“The President is still in office,” Inman began. “The American people really haven’t heard from him on whether or not the government is going to shut down. Wouldn’t the message hit differently if the president were out there, countering the message that we’re hearing from the President-Elect and Elon Musk? Why isn’t he speaking on this?”
CNN's Arlette Saenz argues there's "a strategy" behind President Biden being MIA during this government funding fight, not that his brain is applesauce. pic.twitter.com/sYVGRgdLu6
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 20, 2024
Jean-Pierre responded by blaming Republicans. “We have done this strategy before,” she said. “This is not new where we have said Congress needs to deal with this. This is their number one job— to keep the government open. There was a bipartisan agreement on the table. Speaker Johnson created this mess. He needs to fix it. Period.”
CBS’s @WillieJames Inman: “I’m gonna try to ask us a different way.”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 20, 2024
KJP: “Yeah.”
Inman: “The President is still in office —”
KJP: “You’re going to get the same answer.”
Inman: “— I'm just gonna try. He's still in office for a month.”
KJP: “Feel free.”
Inman: “The American… pic.twitter.com/WmvMN5rujX
NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez followed up with a similar question, asking whether Biden was truly “leading” during this moment of political turmoil.
Jean-Pierre reiterated her stance, stating, “The President is the President of the United States, and he is leading… Congress needs to do its job. This is Speaker Johnson’s mess, and he must fix it.”
NBC’s @GabeGutierrez: “I’ll go at the question in another way. In this moment, is the President leading?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 20, 2024
KJP: “The President is the President of the United States, and he is leading and to be very clear, as it relates to this, I've said this many times before, moments ago,… pic.twitter.com/cVC6XMl926
ABC’s Selina Wang raised concerns about the public’s right to hear directly from Biden, asking, “Why hasn’t President Biden said anything in public about this? Don’t the American people deserve to know why millions of federal workers could enter this holiday period without a paycheck?”
Jean-Pierre, once again, directed criticism toward Republicans in Congress, emphasizing their responsibility for the looming shutdown.
Despite repeated attempts by reporters, Jean-Pierre avoided direct answers about Biden’s decision to stay out of the public eye, sticking to her narrative of holding Republicans accountable.
ABC’s @SelinaWangTV: “Why hasn't President Biden said anything in the public about this? Don't the American people deserve to know why millions of federal workers could enter this holiday period without a paycheck?”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 20, 2024
KJP: “Well, Americans need to know that Republicans are getting… pic.twitter.com/FeNF5FjS1h
