Friday on CNN’s “News Central,” former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she was not “concerned” about former President Joe Biden’s mental capacity during her tenure.
Partial transcript as follows:
BRIANNA KEILAR: According to my colleague Jake Tapper, who wrote a book with Alex Thompson, looking back on that, cabinet secretaries were telling them that Biden wasn’t up to the task of the proverbial 2 a.m. phone call. George Clooney said Biden didn’t even recognize him at the fundraiser that he was hosting. I mean, we’re talking 2023, 2024, why didn’t you see — why didn’t you have concerns? Why didn’t you raise them?
JEAN-PIERRE: So I did not have any concerns. I saw him on a daily basis, Brianna. You know that. I saw him every day. I engaged with him every day. Now, did he show age? No one is denying that. Yes, he showed age. This is a president that was sharp. This is a president that pushed his staff. This is a president that was on top of what the policies that he cared about that were important to the American people. And let’s not forget, he also was leading a coalition, a international coalition when it came to something that we hadn’t seen in decades when it come to the war in Ukraine. There was a lot going on. You just said it in asking me one of the questions. It was an unprecedented time. And objectively, Brianna, it was a, we had some successes, some historic successes in the beginning of, in the first couple of years of his first term, in his presidency, and so those are the things I’m talking my personal, from my personal standpoint, what I saw.
KEILAR: That’s not what I’m asking about, Karine. Do you think he should be president right now? Do you think he is capable right now of being president because that is what you were advocating for, someone who would be president in his current state until 2029.
JEAN-PIERRE: I did not see anything that concerned me when he decided to run for president. I did not. This is someone that I saw every single day. Again, he was on top of the policies. He was sharp. He was someone that cared about what the outcome of the issues that were in front of the American people and what we were doing. I’m speaking from my own personal opinion. I’m speaking from what I saw on a day-to-day basis. And you talked about the vice president’s book. She actually speaks to that as well, so you know I could only speak from what I saw. I can’t speak to sources. I can speak to a book that I actually haven’t read you.
KEILAR: But you say in your book you don’t plan to read it, Karine. You say you haven’t read it and you don’t plan to. I mean, why not? If most people, a lot of people, if the leadership of their workplace imploded and someone wrote a book with 200 sources, many of them good, they would want to read it, they’d want to reflect on that. Why not?
JEAN-PIERRE: No, because I saw it personally and I experienced it personally on an average day to day. And right now, Brianna, look where we are today. It is important that we talk about where we today. We are in an unprecedented situation. There are people who are going missing in the street because there’s military being told to round people up who are Brown, who are Black, and some of them are U.S. citizens. We are in a place where the rule of law has been thrown out the window. That’s what I’m talking about. Yes, I pulled back the curtains and wanted to focus on some things that I experienced. Me, Karine Jean-Pierre, as White House press secretary. But I also wanted to talk about the moment that we are in. These are dangerous times. And so I’m asking, like millions of other Americans, for the Democratic Party to meet the moment. I’m trying to create a conversation. I’m try to push a conversation that I think is really important. And so I have said what I’ve said about that summer of 2024. I have talked about my experience with President Joe Biden, what I saw, but we also have to look at this moment. These are scary times.
KEILAR: Absolutely, I think it’s very important. We talk about it every day on the show, about this moment that we are in and the things we see happening every day. We would be remiss if we didn’t talk about how we got to this moment. That is certainly essential.
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