White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds a press briefing on Friday, July 30, 2021, in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House.
The Biden White House has given Fox News' Peter Doocy possibly more attention than any other press pool reporter, but at times the patience of both Biden press secretaries (and President Biden) has worn thin.
For a while, Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki's almost-daily dueling matches with Doocy made regular headlines, like in February of 2022 when she was forced to say, “Well, Peter, let me just take a step back and explain to everyone how diplomacy works." Or in May of 2021, when Psaki, tired of repeating herself, told Doocy, “Well, we went through this journey together yesterday so let’s do it again.”
On Tuesday, the banter between White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Doocy was lighthearted, leading reporters in the press briefing room to laughter.
But on Wednesday, Doocy appeared to cross a line, forcing Jean-Pierre to deliver a stern response.
"It seems like the hurricane response so far is robust," Doocy said of the Biden administration's efforts to assist the people of Florida who are being impacted by Hurricane Idalia.
"Did you guys realize that the initial Hawaii wildfire response was not that good? Or is it just easier for people to get help from the White House when the President is not on vacation?" he asked, furthering a conservative claim, derided and denied by Democrats in Hawaii, that President Biden and his administration did not respond in a timely manner to the deadly blazes in Maui.
"So the premise of your question and the way you posed your question, I disagree, just for the record," an apparently angered Jean-Pierre responded.
"So if you talk to, if you were to do your reporting and speak to the governor of Hawaii, the senators of Hawaii, the folks on the ground, they would say that the President reacted in record time when it came to dealing with the wildfires, when it came to dealing and making sure that they got everything that they need on the federal level to do what what was going on in the ground. Let's not forget there were more than 600 federal employees on the ground already to assist with the wildfires in Maui. So your question is, is wrong, it's flawed in many, many ways. And I would advise you to go speak to the governor and the local and state officials in Hawaii."
Watch at this link.