Jen Psaki has been a marked improvement over former president Donald Trump’s press secretaries: professional, courteous, and for the most part helpful. She’s also human. And over the last 10 months, she’s done her best to turn her rapport with her greatest journalistic foe, Fox News’ Peter Doocy, into a kind of running joke. But on Monday, she didn’t appear to find him that funny.
The week kicked off with a day of final statements in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial, concerning the Illinois teenager who shot three protesters, two to death. The defense is claiming self-defense; the prosecution thinks that’s hogwash. Some have gone as far as to say he’s a white supremacist, and with good reason: He was caught seeming to flash a white power sign with fans after he killed two people.
While still a presidential contender in September of 2020, Biden tweeted a video describing how then-President Donald Trump “refused to repudiate white nationalists” during the previous night’s debate. Rittenhouse was one of the people featured in the video. The mother of Rittenhouse then alleged that Biden had “defamed” her son.
After a year and a half, Doocy hinted at it in a press conference as the trial got began. “What makes President Biden think Kyle Rittenhouse, who is on trial in Kenosha, is a white supremacist?” ” he inquired.
Psaki paused for a few moments before responding, letting out a long, tired sigh. She stated that she was unable to comment on the ongoing trial. “What I can reaffirm for you is the president’s belief that broadly speaking, we shouldn’t have vigilantes patrolling our neighborhoods with assault guns,” Psaki said. “Nowhere in the country should we have opportunists contaminating peaceful marches by rioting and burning down the communities they claim to represent.”
In the meantime, the Rittenhouse trial has been a clown show, with alleged fake tears, an unhinged judge, even a cameo from the movie Road House.
