The white house Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to reporters' questions Friday about President Biden's lack of public appearances amid the ongoing government funding battle as a partial shutdown approaches.
Jean-Pierre refused to answer why the president did not speak to the American public about his position, instead blaming Republicans, President-elect Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and their “billionaire friends” like… Elon Musk To the chaos on Capitol Hill.
“Why hasn't President Biden said anything publicly about this? Don't the American people deserve to know why millions of federal employees can go into this holiday period without pay?” Jean-Pierre was asked during her daily press conference.
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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily news briefing in the Brady Room for the White House press briefing in Washington, D.C., on Friday. (Ting Xin/AFP via Getty Images)
She replied: “All Americans should know that the Republicans are obstructing the way here and that they are the ones who created this chaos. This is the reality. This is the truth.” “This is not the first time we've been here. The president has taken this approach before. He understands how Congress works. He's been around for some time. He understands the strategy that's working here to get this done.”
Jean-Pierre said Friday that Biden had phone calls with Democratic leaders in Congress — Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. – But he did not mention whether the President had spoken to the Speaker of the House regarding the ongoing discussions.
“He was receiving regular updates from his team. His team was in contact with members of Congress from both parties,” she said.
A simplified version of a Trump-backed bill to avoid a partial government shutdown failed to pass the House of Representatives on Thursday evening.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to reporters' questions Friday about President Biden's lack of public appearances amid the ongoing spending bill crisis as a government shutdown looms. (Kevin Deitch/Getty Images | AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
The bill, which required approval by two-thirds of House members, failed by a vote of 174 to 235. The national debt rose to more than $36 trillion, and the national deficit more than $1.8 trillion.
Jean-Pierre said Republicans went back on their word and “ruined this deal.”
“Republicans need to stop playing politics by shutting down the government,” she said. “They are doing their bidding. They are doing their bidding. They are doing the bidding of their billionaire friends. And this is what we are seeing at the expense of hard-working Americans.”
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He added: “There is an agreement between the two parties that the Republicans failed because of what they were directed to by Elon Musk and President-elect Trump. This is what happened. This is the reality we are in now.”
Musk, an outspoken critic of government waste, weighed in on the spending bill debate and led a conservative revolt against the first 1,547-page bill over bloated spending provisions, calling on lawmakers who supported the bill to lose their seats.
He supported the newer, slimmer version, which House members ultimately rejected.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre criticized the way House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Los Angeles, handled the talks. (AP/J Scott Applewhite)
Journalists tried several different ways to try to get Jean-Pierre to comment on the president's role in the matter, but she continued to evade.
“The president is the president of the United States, and he leads,” she told a reporter, to which he replied, “To be clear, the strategy is that he leads by staying in the background?”
He added, “The strategy is that Congress, and Republicans in particular, need to do their job, get out of their own way, and focus on the American people, not their billionaire friends. This is what needs to happen. This is what the president wants to see.” “, she replied.
Jean-Pierre also warned that the closure could lead to business disruption Presidential transition Next management process.
“If there is a lockdown — and I don't want to get into too many assumptions — but that is the reality, transitional activities will be restricted with limited exceptions, obviously, such as preventing imminent threats to the safety of human life or protecting property,” she said.
President-elect Trump, right, and Elon Musk supported the failed bill on Thursday. (Brandon Bell)
Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Los Angeles, said Friday that Republicans have “good plan” To avoid a partial government shutdown.
“I think you come to an agreement, and then you come together and sit down and figure out, you know, if we can get to the finish line. And that's probably what we're doing,” added Rep. Stephanie Pace, R-Oklahoma. Replay is about to be done now.”
