House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is still reportedly planning a stop in Taiwan as part of her Asia trip, and on Friday former Global Times (China state media) editor-in-chief Hu Xijin tweeted the following that has since been deleted:
If US fighter jets escort Pelosi’s plane into Taiwan, it is invasion. The PLA has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi’s plane and the US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making tactical movement of obstruction. If ineffective, then shoot them down.
That’s fairly big news, right? Not if you work in a Biden White House that obviously doesn’t approve of Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan (Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said earlier today the White House doesn’t support Taiwan’s independence from China, contradicting what Biden’s said in the past).
So what does a White House press secretary do in such an awkward situation? Pretend to have never seen any reports about what the China propagandist tweeted. At least we think she’s only pretending but you never know.
Doocy: "It's been 3 days….since a Chinese official publicly threatened to murder…Pelosi. Where is the President coming out to respond to at the very least say, 'don't do that?'"
KJP: "Well…I have not seen those reports"
Doocy: "They were…going to shoot down her plane" pic.twitter.com/9qasGw1LF9
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 1, 2022
Eventually KJP seemed to recall something about that, but she couldn’t possibly have downplayed the threat more.
It’s all a bit odd, because on Friday Jean-Pierre was asked about the threat and didn’t seem to be unaware of the report, but she did call the question too “hypothetical”:
The White House STILL refuses to say whether or not Pelosi should travel to Taiwan, even after China has threatened to shoot down her plane. pic.twitter.com/KxlnZkv4Ao
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 29, 2022
She already hears about those reports from Doocey three days ago. https://t.co/NDsE8gBEyO
— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) August 1, 2022
We still haven’t actually heard this from Biden specifically. Isolation came at a great time.
— Devon Gardner 🇺🇸 (@Devon_Gardner94) August 1, 2022
Biden might just keep testing positive for Covid as an effective strategy to avoid questions about all this.
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