‘What Does That Even Mean?’: Psaki Dumbfounded Republicans Focus On Crime Wave

During a recent interview on Pod Save America Podcast White House press secretary Jen Psaki appeared to be dumbfounded on why Republicans focus on the recent crime wave.

“I watched your briefing today and I have to come back to this Doocy kid,” co-host Jon Lovett said Tuesday in reference to Fox News’ Peter Doocy as Psaki giggled. The clip was resurfaced by the GOP Twitter account.

“So here’s my question: He always puts out a ‘gotcha’ question, like today he basically asked two. Like one was ‘does President Biden think parents should be under the boot of nameless bureaucrats when it comes to their children’s education’ and the other was ‘does President Biden think crime is good?'”

“You do not fall for any of this bait to your credit, though I think someone much worse at your job would also not fall for these questions,” Lovett continued. “Are you worried that he’s not adjusting? That there’s not a new strategy to try and catch you in some kind of ‘gotcha’ question?” (RELATED: NYC Mayor Eric Adams Blames Rise In Violence On America’s ‘Fixation With Guns’)

“You know, I am not here to work for Peter Doocy or Fox,” Psaki said. “I will say, if you look at how it’s portrayed, how my answers are portrayed, even how I say ‘no, we don’t think crime is good and here’s all the things we’ve done,’ including the thing that makes Republicans crazy, just anecdotally by the hate tweets I get on Twitter when I say this is that they voted against funding for local cops’ programs because the American Rescue Plan, also that Biden has supported $300 billion more in funding and at the same time he also thinks we need police reform – it’s like they don’t know what to do with that.”

“But every time we say that it makes them crazy. I think it speaks to, if you look at Fox on a daily basis … on Fox is Jeanine Pirro talking about soft on crime consequences,” Psaki said, comparing Fox’s coverage to that of CNN and MSNBC’s. “I mean, what does that even mean? So there’s an alternate universe on some coverage and what’s scary about it is a lot of people watch that and they think the president isn’t doing anything to address people’s safety in New York and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Doocy has questioned the administration on the nationwide rise in crime on several occasions, asking in December whether the “increase in criminal activity [is] because some prosecutors are too soft on crime?”

Psaki said the administration was working to get more aid to police departments, but Doocy then asked “what good does it do if you’re going to give police departments extra money if they arrest bad guys and they bring them to jail and then they’re not prosecuted, they’re just right back out on the streets?”

Doocy also asked whether Biden thinks it’s “good governing” in places like New York where violent crime is on the rise. Psaki later agreed that there has been a rise in crime but refused to opine on the cause. Psaki admitted Jan. 24 that the “underfunding of some police departments and their need for additional resources” has contributed to the spike.