White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was outraged on Tuesday when Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked her about claims from an upcoming book that Biden administration staff treat President Joe Biden “like a toddler.”
“President Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history. Why does White House staff treat him like a baby?” Doocy asked during Tuesday’s White House press briefing.
“No one treats the president of the United States, the commander in chief, like a baby. That’s ridiculous. It’s a ridiculous claim,” Jean-Pierre responded.
Doocy immediately pushed back, citing an upcoming book by The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer, “The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future” — where the author asserts that Biden “fumed to friends about how he was treated like a toddler” right after he appeared to call for regime change in Russia in March 2022.
‘Like a Toddler’: Tell-All Biden Book Exposes Mental Slips, Nets Skip https://t.co/P0A68ciCUl
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) September 2, 2023
“Was John Kennedy ever babied like that?” the president asked, according to the book.
Jean-Pierre responded by dismissing the claims, arguing that books are often written about every administration with “a variety of claims.”
“That is not unusual. That happens all the time. And we’re not going to litigate those here.
That’s something that we’re not going to speak to,” the press secretary added.
Jean-Pierre then argued that the excerpt was actually making a point about “how the value of [Biden’s] experience and wisdom resulted in rallying the free world against authoritarianism.”
Peter Doocy asks why White House staff treats Joe Biden like a baby 🤣 pic.twitter.com/UuAgKnqJyO
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) September 5, 2023
She went on to try to change the subject to the president’s upcoming trip to the G20 Summit in India, but Doocy refused to let the topic of Biden’s age go — instead turning to a recent Wall Street Journal poll showing that two-thirds of Democrats believe that the president is too old to run for reelection.
“Look, here’s what I know. Here’s what I can speak to,” Jean-Pierre responded. “I can speak to that – a president who has wisdom. I can speak to a president who has experience. I can speak to a president who has done historic – has taken historic action and has delivered in historic pieces of legislation. And that’s important.”
The press secretary then tried to tout Biden’s supposed accomplishments in infrastructure, the cost of prescription drugs and the incorrectly named Inflation Reduction Act.
“The president continues to prevail,” Jean-Pierre added.
