Dan Abrams accused Karine Jean-Pierre of uttering “gibberish” after the White House press secretary stumbled her way through an MSNBC interview on Friday.
On Monday’s Dan Abrams Live on NewsNation, the host, who founded Mediaite, reacted to Jean-Pierre dodging a question from Chris Hayes about President Joe Biden’s border policies. Specifically, Hayes asked about a report saying the administration is weighing whether to detain families who enter the U.S. illegally.
Abrams said Jean-Pierre’s efforts frequently do more harm than good:
Sadly, Jean-Pierre often ends up creating more damage than controlling it. Now, it’s not all her fault. The White House has long had an incoherent message on border policy, continuing to enforce Title 42 while claiming they want to end it, criticizing other Trump-era immigration policies while reluctantly embracing them because they have no better option.
But what happens when you send a terrible messenger out with a tricky message? You get the kind of trainwreck interview that took place on Friday night – an interview that reduced Jean-Pierre at times to a rambling mess. In fact, the press secretary’s first answer to an obvious question was almost incoherent.
Abrams aired portions of her MSNBC appearance.
“There were reports that the White House was considering – or the Department Homeland Security was considering – reintroducing the practice of family detention,” Hayes said. “Is it true that that’s being considered?”
“So, what I want to be very clear here – and I’ve answered this question as you know, Chris, many times in the briefing room, and we as an administration have as well – we are not gonna certainly comment on rumors or conversations that are out there that people are reporting on,” she said. “Those are rumors. What we are going to promise is that we’re going to do this – we’re going to move forward with a, with this kind of systems, immigration system, that has been gutted, really, truly gutted by the last administration.”
“Thank you for being so clear,” Abrams joked, calling her response “gibberish” before showing Hayes asking the question a second time.
Jean-Pierre dodged the question again, reverting to her “rumors” line.
Abrams chuckled at her evasiveness.
“All Hayes was asking – point blank – was whether they were planning to do it,” he said. “Instead, he got this sort of long drawn-out response. We expect press secretaries to dodge and refuse to answer tricky or perilous questions directly. And what makes the best of them so good is that you didn’t even realize that the question wasn’t answered. And then there’s Karine Jean-Pierre.”
Watch above via NewsNation.
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