Fox News' Peter Doocy asked the White House on Tuesday about Biden's anti-MAGA speech last Thursday. Doocy was looking to know how Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre could reconcile Biden's claims that it is "extremist" to question election results with her own questioning of election results in 2016. Jean-Pierre said that was "ridiculous," and then invoked January 6.
"A follow-up about the MAGA Republican attention," Doocy asked. "So we're all in agreement that it is incorrect to say the 2020 election was stolen. What about the 2016 election?"
"Look," Jean-Pierre said with obvious annoyance, "I'm not going to go back to where we were, or what happened in 2016. And we're going to focus on the here and now we're going to focus on what's happening today. This inflection point that the President pointed out very clearly, very decisively, in a few speeches about what the country needs to do at this time to bring the country together and he believes that's where the majority of Americans are when it comes to protecting our democracy when it comes to protecting our rights. And when it comes to protecting our freedoms, that's what we're going to talk about. That's what we're going to focus on where we are at today."
"But just trying to understand the new attention on the MAGA Republicans," Doocy replied, seeking an actual answer to his question. "You tweeted in 2016 'Trump stole an election—"
Jean-Pierre interrupted Doocy to say she "knew he was going to bring up" her claims of election fraud in 2016. "I was waiting, Peter, when you were going to ask me that question."
"Well, here we go," Doocy said. "You tweeted Trump stole an election, you tweeted Brian Kemp stole an election, if denying election results is extreme now, why wasn't it then?"
"So let's be really clear," Jean-Pierre said, "that that comparison that you made is just ridiculous. I have been— I have been—"
Doocy began to interrupt "why is it ridiculous?"
Jean-Pierre continued, saying "You're asking me, you're asking a question, let me answer it. I was talking specifically, at the time, of what was happening with voting rights and what was in danger of voting rights. That's what I was speaking to at the time.
"And here's the thing I have said, Governor Kemp won the election in Georgia. I've been clear about that. I have said President Trump won the election of 2016. And I've been clear about that.
"What we are talking about right now is— let's not forget what happened on January 6, 2021. We saw an insurrection, a mob, that was incited by the person who occupied this campus, this facility, at the time, and it was an attack on our democracy. Let's not forget people died that day. Law enforcement were attacked that day. That was the danger that we were seeing at the time. That's what the President has called out. And that's what he's going to continue to call out.
"So yes, when you have MAGA Republicans, an extreme part of Republicans, who just deny or do not want to really say what exactly happened on that day, or say it was a protest when it clearly was not a peaceful protest? That's not what we saw on that day.
"Yes, the President is going to call that out. And here's the thing majority of Americans agree with him, a majority of Americans agree with this president on protecting our democracy, protecting our freedom, and protecting our rights. That's what we're talking about today. And that's what the President's going to focus on."
A majority of Americans believe that the President's Thursday speech in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia was divisive and designed to instigate his political opponents. The White House said that the speech, which focused on Biden's political opposition, was not political.
She then took a question about the Obama's upcoming visit to the White House for a portrait unveiling.
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