Thanks to CNN leftist hack M.J. Lee and the ever-inept White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, Monday’s White House press briefing featured a not-so-subtle call for censorship in the news media and suggestions that Trump-friendly voices — such as Ronna McDaniel being hired by NBC News — be allowed “in the national political discourse” due to the aftermath of the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Lee brought up NBC as the liberal media — and the peacock network writ large — are in the throes of a infantile public meltdown after NBC News brass chose to bring McDaniel in for a reported $300,000 (triple what most elite commentators make — which isn’t chump change). The CNN hack’s softball showed how she (and her colleagues) felt about all this:
I wanted to ask you about former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel being hired by NBC News. Given that this is a White House that has condemned lies about January 6, condemned allies about the 2020 election, what do you make of the network hiring somebody who participated in a phone call — um — you know, pressuring Michigan officials to not certify certain votes.
A former MSNBC contributor herself, Jean-Pierre disingenuously proclaimed “we’re always very mindful about personnel decisions…made by a media organization”, but nonetheless went into great detail lecturing NBC executives about the need to hue towards supporting the administration and educating the public on the supposed dangers of voting elsewhere.
Jean-Pierre cited Biden’s remarks at the ultra-elite Washington event The Gridiron Dinner as having addressed the “critical role that journalists play and — and they have — and protecting our democracy by making sure that the public knows the truth, that the public knows the facts.”
“[H]e said…we need you. Democracy is at risk, and the American people need to know, in fractured times, they need a context and a perspective. They need substance to match the enormity of the task. It is a big task that journalists have, and we understand that and the facts and the truth are critical here,” she added before reiterating her faux qualifier she wasn’t making a judgment one way or another.
Lee had a blunt follow-up, wondering whether Trump supporters should be allowed to speak on TV: “[D]o you — does this White House, does the President believe that that — um — kind of voice — that voice like hers — that there’s room for her in the national political discourse?”
Jean-Pierre implied the answer was no, citing January 6 as proof that those who oppose Biden behave violently when they don’t get their way and thus “it is important” the media and White House “are very clear to the public about the facts, that we are very clear to the public about the truth, and we understand the burden that you all have.”
In contrast, CBS’s Ed O’Keefe grilled National Security Council official and frequent Jean-Pierre crutch Kirby on the U.S. abstaining on the latest resolution from the anti-Israel United Nations about the war in Gaza.
He also correctly noted it’s ironic for some U.S. officials to rip Israeli officials facing domestic political pressure to stay resolute when it’s Biden who’s adopted a more aggressive line against Israel to assuage Democratic voters (click “expand”):
O’KEEFE: You say it’s not a shift in policy by voting for this today. Get specific with us as to why again and to the charge that, by even abstaining — because, normally, I mean, there may be some attempt at the U.N. Security Council or the U.N. overall to condemn Israel every so often for whatever reason, the U.S. usually stands up and vetoes those resolutions. Here now, for the first time in a while, the United States is at least abstaining and allowing it to go through. So, the perception broadly is that the U.S. is no longer got Israel’s back when it comes to conversations like this at the U.N.
KIRBY: No, that’s just not true, Ed. Nothing could be further from the truth, quite frankly. Of course, we still have Israel’s back. I mean, as you and I are speaking, we are still providing tools and capabilities — weapons systems so that Israel can defend itself against which we — what we agree is still a viable threat to Hamas again. No change by this non-binding resolution what Israel can or cannot do in terms of defending itself. But, you know, the other day Friday when I was up here, Brian was asking me about, you know how — how come it was okay for, uh, or not okay for Russia and China to veto a resolution that we drafted on Friday when we vetoed similar ones prior to it. And — and — I — my answer, then is going to be my answer today because of the substance of it. The ones we veto didn’t condemn Hamas. This one didn’t condemn Hamas, which is why we couldn’t support it, but we didn’t veto it because, in general, unlike previous reser — resolutions, this one did fairly capture what has been our consistent policy, which is linking hostage deal in the release of those men and women with, of course, uh — uh — a temporary ceasefire.
O’KEEFE: There are U.S. officials today saying Netanyahu’s acting this way because he’s facing some domestic political pressure — there’s domestic political issues going on. Aren’t there also domestic political pressures facing President Biden and that’s part of the reason why y’all are allowing this to happen today?
KIRBY: I — I can’t speak for —
O’KEEFE: You’ve got members of the Democratic Party, saying he’s doing this wrong. You’ve got the general public suggesting his support for Israel is [inaudible]. Is that part of why this is going through today?
KIRBY: — no, absolutely not. And I got to take issue with the premise of the question. The President makes decisions based on the national security interests of the United States, and this decision to abstain on this resolution is in keeping with the national security interests of the United States and quite frankly, it’s in keeping with the national security concerns of the Israeli people.
O’Keefe also touched on the border crisis:
CBS’s @EdOKeefe: “The Customs and Border Policy [sic] — er, Border Patrol chief yesterday suggested in an interview that the situation in the southern borders and national security threat because of the roughly 140,000 known gottaways, or those that crossed the border and were… pic.twitter.com/9mzkqRV0U9
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 25, 2024
Serving as a stand-in for Peter Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich, Fox’s Rich Edson pressed Kirby on both the U.N. resolution abstention and the border crisis.
Here was his exchange on the former:
Fox’s @RichEdsonDC: “John, on this resolution that the U.S. abstained for — abstained to today that was within the power of the United States to block, the — the Prime Minister said ‘it gives Hamas hope the international pressure will allow them to accept a ceasefire without the… pic.twitter.com/7Ab40JiPy8
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 25, 2024
To see the relevant transcript from the March 25 briefing, click here.