Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre point-blank Wednesday why President Joe Biden is “afraid of China.”
Doocy accused Biden of taking no action to hold China accountable for being the originator of COVID-19 and for flying a surveillance balloon across U.S. skies in early February. Jean-Pierre assured that the administration effectively shot down the balloon, investigated the origins of the virus and ultimately protected the safety of the American people.
“Why is President Biden afraid of China?” Doocy asked.
“The president is not afraid of China,” she replied. “Did you see the president last week when we went to Ukraine, to Kyiv, this is not a president that’s afraid of anything. There was an historic trip that many of you said was brave, so clearly this is a president that is not afraid to go to a war zone, he’s not afraid to go there when there’s no military presence on the ground. So there is nothing this president fears.”
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“China flew a spy craft over the U.S., the president didn’t really do anything to China, and according to the FBI director [Christopher Wray], China may have created something that has killed more than 1.1 million people in this country and President Biden is not punishing them,” Doocy said.
Jean-Pierre said the balloon was shot down from the sky and delayed it for a few days in order for the U.S. government to obtain intelligence information on the balloon. (RELATED: Peter Doocy Asks Karine Jean-Pierre Point-Blank If Biden Admin Has ‘Confidence’ In Sec. Pete Buttigieg)
“We did it in a way that was smart, effective and also protecting the American people. That’s what the president is always going to put forth, is the safety of the American people,” Jean-Pierre said. “So that’s what this president did with that particular issue.”
She then addressed the origins of COVID following a conclusion from the U.S. Department of Energy that the virus likely originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which had been reiterated by Wray on Fox News Tuesday. The press secretary said the administration is set to “get to the bottom” and continue to vigorously investigate virus’ the origins.
Doocy argued that Biden’s presidential campaign vowed to shut down the virus, and asked why the administration is not putting in more effort to hold the Chinese accountable for the likely lab-leak. The press secretary claimed the administration effectively handled the virus and accused former President Donald Trump’s administration of having no plan.
“It was because of this president who took action—by the way, the last administration did not have a comprehensive plan—no, no, no, no,” she said.
“That’s responding to COVID, but where did COVID come from,” Doocy interjected.
“Peter, you can’t tell me how to answer the question,” she said. “I’m going to answer it for you, right? So, just give me a second. So because he took those actions, he actually helped to save lives, because he took action to make sure that people got shots in arms and a comprehensive plan in front of the American people and put in the work, we were actually able to get to a place where COVID is not gone, but we are in a different place in the pandemic and that’s because of the president. And that’s because of his leadership.”
She said the intelligence community has put forth several explanation to the virus’ origins, and touted that Biden directed the community to investigate the causes. During the Trump administration, several corporate media outlets and political figures largely discredited the lab-leak theory by branding it a conspiracy theory.