Where's Joe? Not Top of Mind

(Unfortunate word choice)

There is no press briefing on the White House schedule today — a day after President Joe Biden made a gigantic gaffe. “Jackie, are you here?” Biden asked at an event on ending hunger Wednesday. “Where’s Jackie?”

As the president once knew, Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ohio, along with two aides, died in a car accident in early August. The White House released a statement at the time.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not help, she just made an awkward situation worse. During the Wednesday briefing, as reporters lobbed questions about the gaffe, she could have admitted that Biden had a momentary lapse. It happens.

Instead, she said the following in response to this question.

Q    What happened in the hunger event today?  The President appeared to look around the room for an audience member, a member of Congress who passed away last month.  He seemed to indicate she might be in the room.  What happened there?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  So the President was, as you all know — you guys were watching today’s event, a very important event on food insecurity.  The President was naming the congressional champions on this issue and was acknowledging her incredible work.  He had — he had already planned to welcome the congresswoman’s family to the White House on Friday.  There will be a bill signing in her honor this coming Friday.

So, of course, she was on his mind.  She was of top of mind for the President.  He looks — very much looks forward to discussing her remarkable legacy of public service with them when he sees her family this coming Friday.

Q    He said, “Jackie, are you here?  Where’s Jackie?  She must not be here.”

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  No, I totally understand.  I just — I just explained she was on top of mind.  You know, this wasn’t — what we were able to witness today and what the President was able to lift up in this — at this conference at this event was how her — her focus on wanting to deal with, combat food — food insecurity in America.  And this is something that he was lifting up and honoring.

And, again, he knows that he’s going to see her family this coming Friday.  There’s a bill signing that’s going to happen in renaming a VA clinic in Indiana after the late congresswoman.  He knows that he is going to see her family, and she was at top of mind.

It’s apparent with the “top of mind” phrase that the Biden Press Team had agreed on this wording and approach. Big mistake. KJP made assertions that defied credulity and undercut her credibility.

This is what happens when a team realizes it is in such hot water that it cannot speak plainly about things everyone knows.

Why? Because Biden is not up to the job. Jean-Pierre is not up to the job as it is now. Can this administration make it on fumes over a finish line that is more than two years away?

Debra J. Saunders is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership. Sign up for notices of future posts above.