KJP Continues To Lie After Reporter Fact-Checks False Claims
Amid the ongoing tension between Texas law enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is continuing to push outright lies despite being fact-checked in real-time by a Fox News reporter.
Jean-Pierre pushed the narrative, ignoring the facts, during the White House press briefing on Wednesday in response to questions about three illegal aliens drowning while trying to cross the Rio Grande last Friday.
Following the tragic deaths, the Biden administration immediately blamed Texas — with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accusing Texas National Guard soldiers of having “physically barred” CBP agents from responding to illegal aliens in distress. The White House also falsely claimed in a statement that the illegal aliens could have been saved if Texas soldiers had not “blocked U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency assistance.”
As part of its effort to secure the southern border in defiance of the Biden administration’s open-border policies, Texas has effectively seized control of Shelby Park, a city-owned park along the Rio Grande, and prevented CBP agents from entering the area.
Despite the lies being pushed about the incident, the Department of Justice (DOJ) admitted in a Monday filing to the Supreme Court that the illegal aliens — a woman and two children — had been dead from drowning for at least one hour before Mexican officials alerted CBP agents of their deaths.
Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich confronted Jean-Pierre about the White House’s lies during the press conference, asking: “Will the administration amend its separate statement that implied that Texas officials were responsible for the deaths of those three migrants when, in fact, they had nothing to do with it?”
“They had already been dead for an hour by the time Mexico told anyone in the U.S. about it, and the administration admitted as much in their court filing,” she added. “But the statement from the White House implies that Texas was responsible, and a number of outlets were forced to issue corrections and editor’s notes because of that White House statement.”
Instead of correcting the White House’s statement, Jean-Pierre proceeded to chastise Heinrich — calling on her to be “sensitive” because of the “devastating situation.” She then continued to push the false narrative while trying to change the story.
“Our statement is consistent with DOJ’s filing. As the DOJ filing said, there was an ongoing emergency situation that Border Patrol was blocked from accessing. There were other migrants in the water as well,” the press secretary claimed.
“That was separate, though. The ongoing emergency situation was separate,” Heinrich fact-checked.
The Fox News correspondent then proceeded to read the White House statement verbatim — which included the blatant lie that “Texas officials blocked U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency assistance” to the already-deceased illegal aliens.
Jean-Pierre once again refused to acknowledge the false claims, instead continuing to try to change the story.
“There were other migrants in the water as well,” she said.
“Then why wasn’t that included in the statement?” Heinrich fired back.
The Fox News correspondent also asked Jean-Pierre if the White House’s statement was referring to these “other migrants” — though it clearly was not, as it was released specifically to respond to the drownings. The press secretary responded by shutting down her questioning and referring any additional queries on the subject to the DOJ.
