White House press secretary Jen Psaki was pressed Friday on U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s claim that “white supremacy” is “weaved” into the U.S. founding documents.
Psaki seemingly defended Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks during the daily White House press briefing when Newsmax reporter Emerald Robinson asked if she would be removed from her position as U.N. Ambassador for what she claimed was “parroting Chinese Communist Party talking points.” (RELATED: The New York Times’ Mara Gay: US Seems To Be ‘Invested In The Spectacle Of Black Death’)
Robinson began by asking Psaki about Thomas-Greenfield’s comments, which the U.N. Ambassador made Wednesday while speaking to Al Sharpton’s activist group National Action Network (NAN). “I have seen for myself how the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles,” Greenfield said to the group.
Robinson said she believed the statement was being “widely criticized” for “essentially parroting Chinese Communist Party talking points.” She then asked if President Joe Biden intended to remove her from her position.
“Is the president going to remove an African American woman with decades of experience in foreign service, who’s widely respected around the world, from her position as Ambassador to the U.N.? He is not,” Psaki responded. “He is proud to have her in that position. She is not only qualified, he believes she is exactly the right person in that role at this moment in time.”
She went on to say that she hadn’t seen Thomas-Greenfield’s comments to NAN, but that “there’s no question there has been a history of institutional racism in this country, and that doesn’t require the U.N. ambassador to confirm that.”
Robinson then stated that Thomas-Greenfield’s comments were “essentially the same lecture” that the Chinese delegation gave Secretary of State Antony Blinken during their March meeting in Alaska. It isn’t clear which comments Robinson was referring to. However, according to The Guardian, the Chinese delegation did urge the U.S. to address racial issues, in what some saw as a way to deflect from China’s treatment of its Uyghur population.
Robinson then asked if Biden thought the country’s founding documents were “racist.”
“I would say that I will leave my comments to speak for themselves and certainly I think most people recognize the history of systemic racism in our country and she was speaking to that,” Psaki answered.