Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy tried to corner White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki with a “gotcha” question during Monday’s press briefing, but it didn’t go well for the Fox News reporter.
“President Trump was imposing travel restrictions in March specifically on China,” Doocy said, beginning his question. “Then-candidate Biden called it ‘xenophobic’ and ‘fear-mongering.’ So, now-President Biden is putting travel restrictions on people coming in from other countries. What words would you use to describe this?” he asked.
That’s when Psaki responded with facts and in a calm manner.
“Well, I don’t think that’s quite a fair articulation,” Psaki replied. “The President has been clear that he felt the Muslim ban was xenophobic; he overturned the Muslim ban. He also though has supported, and he himself – even before we did, I should say even before he was inaugurated – steps, travel restrictions in order to keep the American people safe, to ensure that we are getting the pandemic under control, that’s been part of his policy, but he was critical of the former president for having a policy that was not more comprehensive than travel restrictions, and he conveyed at the time and, more recently, the importance of having a multifaceted approach, mask wearing, vaccine distribution, funding in order to get 100 million shots in the arms of Americans in the first 100 days, not just travel restrictions.”
Take a look at the exchange below:
Not a great start for Fox here pic.twitter.com/GaTsrrOP8k
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) January 25, 2021
Some people on Twitter responded to the exchange and called Doocy over his question:
I love how gracefully she replies to them. She’s not combative. She’s not in defense mode. So refreshing from all the monsters from the previous admin. Jen just spits out facts and shuts them down.
— politico (@politicalhaus) January 25, 2021
They better get used to it cuz Psaki is smart and won’t take their BS.
— Roberta 🌴🏄🏽♀️ (@RobertaByTheSea) January 25, 2021
I know exactly what you mean. It’s like she knew what was coming, she had an articulate answer, and she didn’t start to get disgusted like Sarah Sanders…
— Bastet (@FelineFancy) January 25, 2021
You'd think he would've learned from when tried to do the same to Ossoff, but guess not.
— Matt Welch (@MattyPanda90) January 25, 2021
