At today’s White House press briefing, Jen Psaki once again up a political creek without a paddle when Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked her to explain why single, adult migrants — most of them men — only recently apprehended at the border are being released into the U.S. in Brownsville, Texas:
DOOCY TIME: "Why is it that large numbers of single adult men are being released into the United States just hours after being apprehended at the southern border?"
Psaki: "Well I'm not sure the specifics of what you're referring to, Peter…." pic.twitter.com/HYvmC1XhqX
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 25, 2022
We kind of have to assume that Jen was thinking to herself, “Man, what a stupid son of a b*tch!” when Doocy asked his questions.
But Doocy apparently wasn’t all that worried about what Psaki was thinking about him, because he pressed her further on the issue:
Doocy: "You mentioned…they're supposed to check in at a local ICE office, but we know that just between large and August…DHS says more than 47,000…migrants that were given notices to report did not show up. So, why let them into the U.S. unsupervised in the first place?" pic.twitter.com/QUxCPRXTfK
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 25, 2022
Clearly Jen didn’t want to talk about this anymore. OK. Peter’s clearly a pretty easygoing guy, so he graciously moved onto a different subject: Joe Biden’s policy toward Russia, particularly in light of the threats against Ukraine.
Doocy: "Biden met with President Putin in-person in June…He said…'It's clearly not in anybody's interested…for us to be in a situation where we're in a new Cold war, & I truly believe…he understands that.' Has the President changed his opinion about what Putin thinks?" pic.twitter.com/sDAo1c4yOe
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 25, 2022
Doocy: "I'm just asking. It seems like President thought in June that things were going to be good & right now, things are not looking good."
Psaki: "I don't actually think that's at all what the President said….There was work that we could do together." pic.twitter.com/YF9XcxLMZX— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 25, 2022
Doocy: "There's a…report…suggesting…the Ukrainian govt is upset the U.S. pulled citizens side of Ukraine before many other countries did &…a source close to the Ukrainian president thinks those Americans are safer in Kiev than in Los Angeles. What do you make of that?" pic.twitter.com/MqWjcb8tIq
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 25, 2022
Hmmm … Jen still sounds pretty annoyed and uncomfortable. How about an easy question about Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent tweet reassuring Ukraine via hashtag that the U.S. has their backs?
Doocy: Blinken "tweeted, 'I #StandWithUkraine.' Has that ever worked at stopping an authoritarian regime from doing anything? A hashtag?"
Psaki: "I will have to say…unlike the last administration, we don't think Twitter is the only means of engaging or negotiating…." (6/6) pic.twitter.com/YYC63yShUk
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 25, 2022
Of course Jen would invoke Donald Trump, despite the fact that for all the “Russian puppet” talk, Vladimir Putin didn’t feel bold enough to try something like this when Trump was in office, and despite the fact that the Trump administration did not regard Twitter as “the only means of engaging or negotiating.”
And of course Jen would defend the Promise of Hashtag. Back in 2014 when Vladimir Putin was flexing his muscles at Ukraine, she pulled the exact same thing:
To echo @BarackObama today-proud to stand #UnitedForUkraine World should stand together with one voice pic.twitter.com/VeMt578UdY
— Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) March 26, 2014
At least she’s consistent.
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