The White House proclaimed President Joe Biden to be a man without fear on Wednesday in response to a question about whether he was afraid of China.
“The president is not afraid of China,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shot back. She then went a step further.
“This is not a president who is afraid of anything,” she added.
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Biden’s top spokeswoman noted that he traveled to war-ravaged Ukraine while in Europe in order to meet with his counterpart, President Volodymyr Zelensky, in Kyiv. She said that reporters had described the secret trip as “brave.”
“This is a president who is not afraid of a war zone,” Jean-Pierre said of the 80-year-old Biden. “He’s not afraid to go there when there’s no military presence on the ground.” She also pointed to his order to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon.
“There is nothing that this president fears,” she said.
The question, posed by Fox News’s Peter Doocy, was premised on the lack of punishment for China’s role in the spread of COVID-19.
Earlier in the week, reports indicated that the Department of Energy had concluded the lab leak theory was the most likely explanation for the coronavirus.
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China will loom large over the 2024 presidential race, with Biden expected to announce his campaign for reelection sometime this year. Former President Donald Trump, who has already declared his candidacy, is leaning heavily into expanded China tariffs, and House Republicans have created a select committee on threats emanating from Beijing.
Biden has attempted to outflank Trump and other Trump-influenced Republicans on China and a host of other topics that appeal to working-class voters in the battleground states.