Fox News’s Peter Doocy confronted Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the $157 million going to Lebanon while Americans struggle in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Reasonable question.
Except KJP called it “misinformation.”
“You can’t call a question you don’t like misinformation,” Doocy responded.
The question angered KJP to the point where she stormed out of the room:
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS: On the issue of funding, the administration has money to send to Lebanon without Congress coming back. But Congress does have to come back to approve money to send to people in North Carolina — do I have that right?KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Here’s what I will be very clear about. The president and the vice president has had a robust, whole-of-government response to this — hundreds of millions of dollars. I said it at the top — more than $200 million that we have directly put toward survivors here for disaster help. And that is because of this president’s commitment to make sure we are there for communities that are impacted. We take this very seriously.We take this very seriously and before the hurricane hit, we prepositioned more than 1,500 federal folks on the ground to help. We have made sure that every state has gotten their storm-requested emergency declaration. They requested it and we made sure that they received it. We have taken this very seriously. More than $200 million that we have provided to the impacted areas.And but instead, people want to do disinformation/misinformation which is dangerous. Which is dangerous. Because when folks on the ground hear that, they may not want to ask for the help that they need. That is there for them. That is there for them. That is our focus here.PETER DOOCY: President Biden is fond of saying, “Show me your budget and I will tell you what you value.” If he has money for people in Lebanon right now without Congress having to come back, what does it say about his values — there’s not enough money right now for people in North Carolina who need it. That’s not misinformation.KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Wait, no it is, your whole premise of the question is misinformation, sir. Yes, it is.PETER DOOCY: Which part?KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: I just mentioned to you that we provided more than $200 million to folks who are impacted in the area, and I just shared with you that people are deciding not to — people are deciding not to –PETER DOOCY: The president went to Congress and said there is not enough money.KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: We are talking about the SBA disaster loan.PETER DOOCY: That’s money for people in North Carolina.KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: And that’s important and people in North Carolina need that. This is — Peter, this is nothing new. Congress comes together, they provide money, millions of dollars for disaster relief. We are asking them to do the job that they have been doing for some time. Doing for some time.PETER DOOCY: The president’s letter is not misinformation. Would you agree?KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: No. The way you are asking me the question is misinformation. There is money that we are allocating to the impacted areas and there is money there to help people who truly need it. There are survivors who need the funding, who need the funding, and it is there.I said that we have the money available to help survivors of Hurricane Helene and also Hurricane Milton. Now there’s going to be a shortfall because we don’t know how bad Hurricane Milton is going to be. So we are going to need additional funding. We are going to need additional funding.PETER DOOCY: That’s exactly what I just asked about and you said it was misinformationKARINE JEAN-PIERRE: What you’re asking is why Congress needs to come back and do its job.
Before she stormed out, KJP added: “That’s what you’re asking me. Congress needs to come back and do their job and provide extra assistance, extra funding for the disaster relief fund. That’s what Congress needs to do. You may not want that, but that’s okay. That’s what this president wants, and that’s what the vice president wants.”
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