Take, for example, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who loves to try and troll people he disagrees with, but almost always fails and winds up with egg on his face.
Such was the case Thursday when Cruz spoke at CPAC in Orlando, Florida, Mediaite reports:
After referencing (White House Press Secretary Jen) Psaki, Cruz actually called out the audience out for not booing the mere mention of her.
The audience obliged.
“Boooo!”
“You know, Peppermint Patty deserves some love,” Cruz said, comparing Psaki to the character from Peanuts.
When a reporter referenced Cruz’s comments at the daily White House press briefing, Psaki had the perfect retort:
“Don’t tell him I like Peppermint Patty. So I’m not going to take it too offensively. Sen. Cruz, I like Peppermint Patty. I’m a little tougher than that, but there you go.”
Ted Cruz is an embarrassment to his daughters. Imagine teaching your daughters it's okay to refer to a professional female as "Peppermint Patty". Or – teaching them it's okay if a bully calls your mom ugly. I sincerely feel sorry for his daughters.
Of course, Ted will never be able to live down his nickname, Cancun Cruz, so his only option is to try and divert attention from himself to someone else. Problem is, he looks like an asshole either way.
A Fox News reporter got a lot more than she bargained for when she tried to trip up White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki by claiming that asking Americans to leave Ukraine immediately could end the way the evacuation from Afghanistan did.
Fox correspondent Jacqui Heinrich began by asking:
“If we don’t know Putin has made up his mind, why are we hearing this warning from (National Security Adviser) Jake Sullivan that Americans should get out, ideally in the next 24 to 48 hours? I don’t believe we have heard that window before.”
Psaki made it clear that it was a matter of “better safe than sorry,” adding:
“We want to be very clear and direct with American citizens about the risk that that would pose to them, that the risk that would be posed to any civilian if they remain in the country.”
Rather than let Psaki finish, however, Heinrich interrupted:
“This is now the second evacuation of Americans–”
Psaki refused to budge, steaming ahead with her reply and a recitation of the facts, which Fox reporters and viewers absolutely hate:
“It is not actually an evacuation, to be clear. American citizens can depart Ukraine, there are means of departing Ukraine. This is not a country where we are at war. We have not had tens of thousands of troops fighting a war for 20 years, so it’s incredibly different.”
Heinrich once again tried to make her Afghanistan comparison:
“Correct. You are correct in that. But it’s the second time we have urged American citizens to get out of a country…”
“Actually, we have urged American citizens to depart a number of times,” Psaki began, then adding:
“But let me finish here because I think it’s important for people to understand. We urged American citizens to depart Kazakhstan, urged American citizens to depart Ethiopia.”
That led Heinrich to ask:
“The president has frequently talked about getting out of Afghanistan as a major event.Impacted his polling, this is a current event underway. The question is, what does the administration say to critics who are looking at these two events and questioning the administration’s foreign policy approach?”
Psaki asked Heinrich: “Who is questioning us?”
Heinrich:
“Plenty of Republicans, I could name off any number of Republicans.”
“Name one,” Psaki insisted.
The Fox reporter spit out the name of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
That was all it took for Psaki to swat down Heinrich’s absurd comparison, putting her on full blast as she again used facts to rebut everything the Fox reporter had just uttered:
“Ok, here’s what I would say to Mr. McConnell. The president ended a 20-year war in Afghanistan, a war that had cost us thousands of American lives, billions, trillions of dollars, and was a failed enterprise after 20 years. He was the first president to do that after many predecessors failed to take exactly that step. We knew it would be complicated, we knew it would be challenging, he had the courage to get our troops out of there and end a 20-year war.
This is entirely different.We are not ending a 20-year war. We are trying to prevent war here, trying to keep American citizens safe in Ukraine by encouraging them to depart, by providing them information about what the security circumstances are on the ground. And I think it’s important for the American public to understand the significant differences between these different scenarios.”
Game, set, and match Jen Pskai. Mic drop.
Here’s the video:
Jen Psaki pushes back on a "many people are saying" question from a Fox News reporter impugning his foreign policy pic.twitter.com/dNj5aVqRO5
Some Congressional Republicans are upset that President Joe Biden has pledged to nominate a black woman to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on the nation’s highest court, so White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki decided she’d shut down the GOP hypocrites by using their own words against them.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had this to say about Biden’s promise of a black female justice, according toThe Washington Post:
“The fact that he’s willing to make a promise at the outset, that it must be a Black woman, I got to say that’s offensive. You know, Black women are what, 6 percent of the U.S. population? He’s saying to 94 percent of Americans, ‘I don’t give a damn about you, you are ineligible.'”
Asked by NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker if the president was playing identity politics as some Republicans have suggested, Psaki began by noting that former President Donald Trump had made it clear he would nominate a woman to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
“Not only were there no complaints for choosing a nominee from a specific demographic but there was widespread praise of now-Justice Barrett on those grounds.”
And then Psaki focused in on Cruz, bringing the receipts as she pointed to his own comments about Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination:
“He had no objection to Donald Trump promising to nominate a woman in 2020. In fact, he praised her on these grounds… during the confirmation hearing, Cruz said, ‘I think you’re an amazing role model for little girls — what advice would you give little girls?'”
Psaki: Just over a year ago, the previous President also promised to select a woman for the Supreme Court. Not only were there no complaints for choosing a nominee from a specific demographic but there was widespread praise.. *reads statements from Ted Cruz* pic.twitter.com/r6qeSi5dSt
The press secretary then added that Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor after having repeatedly said he would be choosing a woman for the court, yet no conservatives whined when that was done, either.
Here’s the simple fact that Republicans like Ted Cruz simply don’t want to admit: They’re just fine with white women nominees, but the minute that woman’s skin color is black, they begin having hysterical hissy fits usually reserved for spoiled children who don’t get their way.
It’s about race. And Ted Cruz is among the biggest racists and hypocrites to be found anywhere on this planet.
If there’s a White House press briefing, you can count on Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy trying to twist President Joe Biden’s words and getting slapped down by press secretary Jen Psaki.
Today’s dustup took place when Doocy asked about a report that seven school districts in Virginia are suing Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) for his ban on mask madates:
“So who does the president think knows best for students? School board members or parents?”
Psaki replied:
“The president believes that public health officials have the best guidance on what we can all do to protect ourselves. Studies show that masks reduce transmissions in school. They are a proven tool that helps keep teachers safe from Covid and they can thus help keep schools open and safe.”
But that response wasn’t enough for Doocy, who then asked:
“So if a parent wants to send their kid to school with no mask, should that child be allowed to go to school and be in class?”
Psaki:
“Again, what we’re advising school districts on is to abide by public health guidelines and follow public health guidelines. It’s about keeping an entire community safe and those are the decisions that people should focus on making.”
Clearly trying to criticize Biden’s policies on education and health, Doocy added:
“Just so it’s crystal clear for anybody watching, you guys think that ultimately in this conflict between school board members and parents, the school board members should have more of a say.”
“That’s actually not what I said. I think everybody should abide by public health guidelines, not just to keep their own kids safe, but keep their school community safe, whether it’s teachers, classmates, administrators or others in schools.”
And that’s how you counter the bullshit that flows 24/7 from Fox and other right-wing propaganda outlets: With facts. They absolutely hate that.
It’s safe to say that since COVID first hit the United States back in January of 2020, no “news” organization has told more lies about the pandemic than Fox, which also happens to have the largest audience of any conservative network.
Consider a few of Fox’s biggest lies about coronavirus, as compiled by Gizmodo:
“According to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the U.S. government is hiding deaths from the covid-19 vaccine. It’s a claim Carlson made multiple times in 2021, like on May 5, when he pulled numbers from the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS.” (That’s false, Politifact reported)
“On the December 8, 2021 edition of Tucker Carlson’s online show, the Fox News host claimed that covid-19 was making men more feminine:
“So somebody who knows him told me, and I’d be interested in getting your take on this, that getting covid emasculated him, it changed him, it feminized him, it weakened him as a man,” Carlson asked. (Not even remotely true.)
“Fox News host Martha MacCallum made the claim on March 9 that masks probably weren’t helping in the ways being promoted by the U.S. government, albeit belatedly.” (Actually, all scientific evidence suggests that masks do indeed slow the spread of the disease.)
So it probably shouldn’t come as any surprise that Fox correspondent Peter Doocy would try to sneak a lie past White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki when he asked:
“You’re triple-vaxed, still got COVID. Why is the president still referring to this as a pandemic of the unvaccinated?”
And that’s when Pskai burned Doocy to the ground using every conservative’s worst enemy: Facts.
“Well I think, Peter, that there’s a significant difference. I had been triple-vaxxed. I had minor symptoms. There is a huge difference between that and being unvaccinated. You are 17 times more likely to go to the hospital if you’re unvaccinated, 20 times more likely to die.”
The scientific evidence does indeed support Psaki and the Biden administration, with recent data from hospitals in the state of New York showing that unvaccinated people in the state are 32 times more likely to be hospitalized if they contract COVID-19.
