On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki got a question from Michael Shear of the New York Times which sounded more like a query from Fox News or Newsmax. And she quickly dispatched Shear for what he asked.
Specifically, Shear used one of those classic “people are saying” questions that are the favorite of right-wing media and their savior, failed, one-term former President Donald Trump:
“In a number of issues, in the last, say, several weeks in which advocates – allies – of the president are describing him as ‘Trump-like,’ much less in terms of his personality and sort of tone and tenor obviously but, but in terms of policy, even today, [a] representative of the Cuban government describing the frustration with the, with the president, can continue to maintain Trump-era policies, vis-à-vis Cuba. Does the, what’s the President’s reaction? And does he accept that in some areas of policy, he is, you know, in agreement with the former president?”
Psaki began by trying to get clarity and specifics on who had made such comments about the president:
“So, just for the sake of argument here, not argument but discussion, beyond the representative of the Cuban government – But who are we talking about here, who’s saying that the President’s like Trump?”
Shear told the press secretary:
“Oh, I mean they’re, they’re, they’re I mean they’re I could find you quotes, we, there have been quotes at our paper, quotes and lots of, lots of folks have, depending on the issue, whether they are immigration advocates or, you know folks in the Afghanistan, who sort of watch Afghanistan there, there have been numerous on the record descriptions of the President, embracing – and it’s actually in some ways just a factual statement.”
Psaki:
“On what policy, on what policy, sir? What specific policies?”
Shear:
“Well, I mean, for example, Afghanistan would have been the maintaining of the former president’s decision to withdraw troops, on immigration, it’s in maintaining Title 42 and keeping Title 42 in place.”
Clearly amused by the question, Psaki began destroying everything Shear had just said:
“So, look. I take each one of these – on Afghanistan, the former president struck a deal without the Afghan government that we heard the military convey yesterday led to the demoralization of the Afghan security forces and the Afghan government, where he also released 5,000 Taliban fighters into Afghanistan.”
Title 42, it should be noted, deals with public health, ABC News reports:
Title 42 is a clause of the 1944 Public Health Services Law that “allows the government to prevent the introduction of individuals during certain public health emergencies,” said Olga Byrne, the immigration director at the International Rescue Committee.
Seeing as how we’re in the midst of a pandemic, what Psaki said next just makes good sense, and she also managed to get a dig in at Trump:
“Title 42 is a public health, is a public health requirement, a public, because we’re in the middle of a pandemic, which, by the way, we would have made progress on had the former president actually addressed the pandemic and not suggest that people inject bleach, so I think we’re in a bit of a different place.”
It’s been said before but it bears repeating: Jen Psaki is a national treasure. It’s so refreshing to see a press secretary who actually responds to the questions.