White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the report with regard to former president Donald Trump’s alleged cooperation with Russia in 2016.
Special Counsel John Durham’s four-year review came to an end with a critical 300-page report that determined the FBI and Department of Justice had violated “strict fidelity to the law” in their handling of the Trump-Russia investigation.
Despite the Durham report being made public on Monday, Jean-Pierre was only questioned once on it on Tuesday during the White House Press Briefing.
“What is the White House reaction to the special counsel report on how the FBI handled the Trump-Russia probe?” Philip Wegmann, a reporter from RealClearNews asked.
Jean-Pierre only retorted that she would leave the matter up to the Department of Justice.
Wegmann persisted, apparently unimpressed with her response, saying, “The president talks often about how he wants the DOJ and FBI to remain independent and above the fray. That report seems to reflect the opposite. Does he agree with Special Counsel Durham that there needs to be wholesale changes at the FBI?”
“Again, that is with the Department of Justice,” Jean-Pierre swiftly responded, closing her briefing book.
“That’s not something that I’m going to speak from the podium. As you just stated in your question, we believe in an independent Department of Justice. That’s what the president said when he was running and that’s what the president has said the last two years,” she continued.
Social media users, including media personalities, were enraged by Jean-Pierre’s poor response to the brief conversation, especially in light of her own personal experience with the Russia conspiracy claim.
Steve Guest, Ted Cruz communications adviser, called Jean-Pierre “guilty of pushing the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ nonsense.”
Ian Miles Cheong, journalist, also said that Jean-Pierre was “deflecting and she isn’t even good at it.”
Abigail Monroe, Josh Hawley communications director, was weirded out that the “‘muh norms and institutions’ crowd has nothing to say.”
These are just some of those who reacted to Jean-Pierre’s past tweets who were critical of her past statements about the Russia investigation and the 2016 election.
