Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy drew laughter from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre with a question about President Joe Biden visiting the southern border.
Doocy has consistently pressed the White House about a Biden border visit, which the administration views as an empty “photo op” or a “stunt.”
But at Wednesday’s White House briefing, something about the way Doocy asked the question — about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s invitation for the president to tour the border with him — tickled Jean-Pierre:
MR. DOOCY: Thank you, Karine. Kevin McCarthy says that he invited President Biden down to the border. Has the President RSVPed? (Laughter.)
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: To — (Laughs.)
MR. DOOCY: Well, we know — we know the President has never been down to the border. The possible next Speaker says that he wants him to go with him. So, is he going to?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, he’s been there. He’s been to the border. And since he took office —
MR. DOOCY: When — when did he go to the border?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Since he took office, the — President Biden has been taking action to fix our immigration system and secure our border. And that’s why, on day one, he put forward an immigration — immigration reform — a piece of legislation to deal with what is currently happening at the border.
But, you know, that — we’re not seeing that from Republicans. We’re not seeing a willingness to work with us on — on, you know, fixing a situation that’s been around for decades now.
Instead, they’re — they’re doing political stunts. That’s what they want to do. That’s how they want to take care of this situation.
But, in the meantime, you know, the President has secured record levels of funding for the Department of Homeland Security. We have over 23,000 agents working to secure the border. We’ve taken thousands of smugglers off the streets, and we’re cutting down on asylum processing times. And the number of individuals arriving unlawfully from northern Central America and Venezuela is coming down significantly because of the actions that the President has taken.
At a CNN town hall last year, President Biden told Anderson Cooper, “I’ve been there before, and I haven’t – I mean, I know it well. I guess I should go down. But the – but the whole point of it is: I haven’t had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down.”
The White Hous said a Biden motorcade drove along the border on the way to a campaign stop in 2008, which The Washington Post Fact-Checker column appraised this way: “(T)he president was asked a question about when he would visit the border, and he responded that he has ‘been there before.’ It turns out it was a brief drive-by — not the kind of sustained visit that his critics are demanding. It’s almost like counting a refueling stop as a visit to a country. But it’s enough that we will leave this unrated.”
Watch above via The White House.
The post WATCH: Karine Jean-Pierre Busts Out Laughing After Fox Correspondent Peter Doocy’s Question About Biden Visiting Border first appeared on Mediaite.