In a statement to Mediaite, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki backed new Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on unearthed tweets regarding “stolen” elections in 2016 & 2018 and addressed statements KJP made against Fox News when a guest on MSNBC.
President Joe Biden’s press office stated a week ago that Jean-Pierre will succeed Psaki at the finish of operations last week, on Friday.
The news was met with a barrage of criticism from opponents, as well as admiration and congratulations for the historic choice, and increased examination of KJP’s previous utterances.
A couple of tweets about “stolen” elections, in particular, started spreading, as reported.
Jean-Pierre tweeted in December 2016, a month after Hillary Clinton managed to lose to Donald Trump, “Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election …..welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump,” as part of a quote-tweet chain citing a Trump post about allowing China to keep a stolen drone.
“Reminder: Brian Kemp stole the gubernatorial election from Georgians and Stacey Abrams,” Jean-Pierre said in a 2020 tweet, an allusion to Abrams’ claims of voter intimidation in that election.
Psaki alerted Mediaite about Kemp’s tweet “We all agree the 2018 election in Georgia is settled. And we’re also all concerned about voter suppression issues, including the President. Kemp won and she sees that tweet as having oversimplified the problem.”
Regarding the 2016 tweet, Psaki stated that Jean-Pierre “has affirmed that Donald Trump won in 2016, too. Like so many of us, Karine was concerned about the U.S. intelligence community’s unanimous finding that Russia intervened to help Trump. But he won.”
“Just like four years later Joe Biden won the most votes of anyone in American history,” Psaki said. “She’s aligned with the President that people should admit who won regardless of preference.”
The fatal Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol was sparked by Trump’s reluctance to acknowledge the result of that election landslide, which has been reaffirmed repeatedly by state authorities from Trump’s own party.
Psaki also addressed remarks made by Jean-Pierre on MSNBC’s AM Joy program on March 15, 2020, in which she mentioned Tucker Carlson and blasted the network as “racist” for its reporting of the coronavirus.
“This is a years-old clip of Karine, referring to an opinion host – not a reporter – when she was not in government and not speaking on behalf of the president,” Psaki informed Mediaite.
“As she has shown at the White House many times already, including in the Briefing Room, she will continue to follow the guidance of the President in engaging with a range of reporters from a broad range of outlets, including Fox, even when there are different points of view,” Psaki assured.