White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre appeared to hang up on a North Carolina radio host Tuesday after the host dared to ask whether President Joe Biden had dementia.
Jean-Pierre called the question from WBT’s Mark Garrison “offensive” and “insulting,” highlighting that the president’s physician has laid out a “comprehensive” report on the president’s health.
“I can’t even believe you’re asking me this question. That is an incredibly offensive question to ask,” Jean-Pierre said. “Let me be very clear about this. For the past several years, the president’s physician has laid out in a comprehensive way the president’s health. This is a president who, if you watch him every day, if you really pay attention to his record and what he has done, you will see exactly how focused he’s been on the American people, how historic his actions have been. And so I’m not even going to truly, truly, really, you know, take the premise of your question. I think it is incredibly insulting.”
The press secretary requested the next question, which she also firmly answered, regarding gas and grocery prices. Garrison questioned how the president can expect to win votes when voters have less disposable income.
“When the president walked into this administration, there were multiple problems happening,” Jean-Pierre said. ‘But the president took action on gas prices. Let’s not forget, the Russian invasion of Ukraine skyrocketed prices of gas, and because the president took action, we are in a different place than we were a year ago on gas prices. Eggs, milk, seafood products, all the important groceries — those prices have gone down because of what this president has been able to do. And with that, thank you so much, Mark, have an amazing day.”
Jean-Pierre then appeared to hang up the phone, leaving Garrison and another radio host stunned.
The White House responded to the report of Jean-Pierre purportedly hanging up the phone, saying the radio station “artificially attached a sound effect.”
“As she often does when the President travels, Karine had multiple back-to-back interviews with radio stations who were each offered 7 minutes,” a White House spokesman said. “Once the agreed-upon time was over, she called into the next interview so everyone could get their full time. This particular station chose not to air the full interview and instead artificially attached a sound effect that our phones do not make when calls end.”
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The interview comes after critics of the 81-year-old president have expressed concern over his mental capability to serve another four years as the commander in chief. However, a summary of the physical findings by the president’s physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor in February noted that Biden “continues to be fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”
If Biden is reelected in November, he would be 86 when he leaves office. If former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, wins in November then he would be 82 when leaving office.
