White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre abruptly exited her briefing on Monday following a tense exchange with a reporter regarding whether a question about the federal response to Hurricane Helene constituted “misinformation.”
Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy pressed Jean-Pierre to clarify why the Harris-Biden administration had nearly $157 million set aside to help displaced individuals and refugees in Lebanon, while simultaneously needing to plead with Congress for more funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is currently facing a funding shortfall due to the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene.
“We’ve taken this very seriously,” the White House spokesperson stated. “More than $200 million that we have provided to the impacted areas, but instead, people want to do disinformation, misinformation, which is dangerous.”
When Doocy questioned what the disparity between the lack of additional FEMA funding—mentioned by President Biden in a recent letter to congressional leaders—and the available resources for Lebanon indicated about Biden’s “values,” Jean-Pierre accused him again of spreading “misinformation.”
“Your whole premise of the question is misinformation, sir,” Jean-Pierre replied.
“Excuse me?” Doocy retorted.
“Yes, yes, it’s misinformation,” the White House press secretary reiterated emphatically. “I just mentioned to you that we provided more than $200 million to folks who are impacted in the area.”
The 81-year-old president cautioned congressional leaders on Friday that “without additional funding, FEMA would be required to forego longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs.”
“The Congress should provide FEMA additional resources to avoid forcing that kind of unnecessary trade-off,” Biden emphasized, adding that beyond the regions affected by Hurricane Helene, “many other communities are also in urgent need of disaster assistance.”
Doocy then inquired whether Jean-Pierre would agree that Biden’s letter was not, in fact, “misinformation.”
“No, the way you’re asking me the question is misinformation,” she replied. “There is money that we are allocating to the impacted areas, and there’s money there to help people who truly need it.”
“You can’t call a question that you don’t like ‘misinformation,’” the Fox News reporter countered. “That’s very unfair.”
Jean-Pierre maintained that the administration has “the money available to help survivors of Hurricane Helene and also Hurricane Milton” in spite of Biden’s correspondence with Congress.
She asserted that the request for additional funds was due to uncertainty about “how bad” Hurricane Milton—a Category 5 storm developing in the Gulf of Mexico—will be.
“That’s exactly what I just asked about, and you said it was misinformation,” Doocy responded.
“Congress needs to come back and do their job and provide extra assistance, extra funding to the Disaster Relief Fund,” Jean-Pierre stated. “That’s what Congress needs to do, and we’re going to continue to urge that.”
“You may not want that, but that’s okay. That’s what this president wants, and that’s what the vice president wants,” she concluded before shutting her notebook forcefully and leaving the briefing room.
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{Matzav.com}