White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates found himself in hot water Wednesday after sharing a video from an account mocking President Joe Biden.
Bates shared a video of White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre that had been posted by Greg Price, the senior digital strategist at XStrategies LLC and a former Daily Caller social media coordinator. Before Bates shared the clip, Price had temporarily changed his account name to “Joe Biden Showered With His Daughter,” causing the moniker to show up under Bates’ post.
Bates also retweeted Price’s original tweet containing the video, apparently without noticing Price’s account name.
Lmaoooo pic.twitter.com/YZ2n8UHx4C
— Alexis De Popeville (@JohnPaulThee3rd) February 23, 2023
Ok, @AndrewJBates46, you gotta admit this is pretty funny…
+1 @greg_price11 pic.twitter.com/0zxTmvqelA
— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) February 23, 2023
Uhm, Andrew……
— Mike Hahn (@mikehahn_) February 23, 2023
And he can’t delete it because it’s a government account
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 23, 2023
In the video from Thursday’s press briefing, Jean-Pierre lamented the alleged “bad faith attacks” against Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg over his handling of the train derailment and toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio. (RELATED: ‘That’s Who You Voted For’: Joy Behar Says East Palestine Deserved Train Derailment For Supporting Trump)
“There’s been a lot of bad faith attacks on Secretary Buttigieg. If you remember Elaine Chao. She was the head of the Department of Transportation and when there were these types of chemical spills, nobody was calling for her to be fired,” Jean-Pierre said.
Buttigieg faced widespread scrutiny for delaying his public response to the crisis for 10 days. He visited the site in East Palestine on Thursday, exactly twenty days after the Feb. 3 derailment.
The Transportation Secretary said in a Tuesday interview that he “could’ve spoken out sooner” in the aftermath of the crisis.
“Our department was on the ground within hours, helping with the response and the investigation,” he said. “Again, I respect the separate role of the [National Transportation Safety Board]. But we have been on the ground literally from day one to make sure that we’re doing our part to support. I do think it’s important to speak out about that, and I could have spoken sooner, and I’m making sure that we are focused on the actions that are gonna make a difference.”