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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki got testy with New York Times White House correspondent Michael Shear when grilled about the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
During the White House press briefing, Psaki was not happy when asked if Joe Biden has acted similar to Donald Trump.
The back-and-forth got heated when Psaki struggled to offer a counter-argument to explain away Biden’s disastrous incompetence on the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Below is a transcript of the exchange:
REPORTER 1: “On one other separate topic: There have been a number of issues in the last, say, several weeks in which advocates — allies of the President are describing him as ‘Trump-like.’ Most — less in terms of his personality and sort of tone and tenor, obviously, but in terms of policy. Even today, a representative of the Cuban government describing the frustration with the President continuing to maintain Trump-era policies vis-à-vis Cuba. Does the — what’s the President’s reaction? And does he accept that in some areas of policy he is, you know, in agreement with the former President?”
PSAKI: “So, just for the sake of argument here — not argument, but discussion — beyond the representative of the Cuban government who —“
REPORTER 1: “Afghanistan, immigration —“
PSAKI: “Well, but who? Who are we talking about here?”
REPORTER 1: “Who —“
PSAKI: “Who is saying that the President is like Trump?”
REPORTER 1: “Oh, I mean there — there — I mean, I could find you quotes. We have — there have been quotes in our paper and quotes in lots of — lots of folks have, depending on the issue, whether they are immigration advocates or, you know, folks in the Afghanistan — who sort of watch Afghanistan. There have been numerous on-the-record descriptions of the President embracing — and it’s actually, in some ways, just a factual thing, right?”
PSAKI: “But like on what policy?”
REPORTER 1: “Like the President has —“
PSAKI: “On what policy? Sorry, I didn’t — you can — you can name people but — or what specific policies.”
REPORTER 1: “Well, I mean, for example, Afghanistan would have been the maintaining of the former President’s decision to withdraw troops. On immigration, it’s in maintaining Title 42 and keeping Title 42 in place. I mean they’re —“
REPORTER 1: “Submarines.”
REPORTER 2: “The submarine — yeah.”
PSAKI: “Which one?”
REPORTER 2: “The submarine — I’m just —“
REPORTER 1: “Yeah, the —“
REPORTER 2: “The President was compared to Trump —“
REPORTER 1: “— to Trump. Well, the — that’s the French — the French Foreign Minister compared him to Trump, in terms of how he handled the AUKUS negotiations.”
PSAKI: “So, look, I’d take each one of these: On Afghanistan, the former President struck a deal without the Afghan government that we heard the military convey yesterday, led to the demoralization of the Afghan Security Forces and the Afghan government, where he also released 5,000 Taliban fighters into Afghanistan. I would say the President took a pretty different approach than that in ending a war that the former President didn’t end — something the American people strongly support. As it relates to AUKUS, I’m not even sure what that’s referring to, in terms of what they’re comparing. The President worked with key partners — Australia and the United Kingdom — to come to an agreement that would help provide security in an important part of the world — in the Indo-Pacific — a priority that, frankly, getting out of the war in Afghanistan leaves space for us to spend more time addressing. What was the last one? Immigration?”
REPORTER 1: “Immigration, Title 42, tariffs on China. I mean, there’s —“
PSAKI: “Title 42 is a public health — is a public health requirement, a public — because we’re in the middle of a pandemic, which, by the way —“
REPORTER 1: “The President and his allies —“
PSAKI: “— we would have made progress on had the former President actually addressed —“
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