Cocaine found at White House: Karine Jean-Pierre faces questions

in many of these communities and the President also had an opportunity to speak by phone with the Baltimore mayor yesterday the President also marked one year since a shooter armed with an AR-15 style weapon fired upon a crowd of Americans gathered for an Independence Day Parade in Highland Park Illinois and he highlighted how in in the year since Illinois governor JB pritzer Highland Park mayor Nancy rotary legislative leaders and numerous Advocates and gun violence survivors have fought tirelessly to ban assault weapons like the one used in Highland Park as well as high-capacity magazines across Illinois but as we have seen over the last few days there's a there's a lot more a lot more work to do to address the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing up our communities tearing it apart president obidon is doing everything in his power from enacting historic gun safety legislation last summer to two dozen executive actions to combat the epidemic of gun violence Across America but he also knows that that is not enough which is why on the heels of the tragedies we saw unfold across the last few days the president continues to call on Republican lawmakers in Congress to come to the table and ban assault weapons in high capacity magazines to require safe storage of guns to end gun manufacturers immunity from liability and to enact Universal background checks lives are at stake here folks lives are at stake in communities the lives of our kids and these are meaningful meaningful Common Sense reforms that the American people support majority of the American people support these reforms and we need Congress to do something we need republicans in Congress to do something to protect our communities now on a brighter note I wanted to share some good news from Monday that may have gotten lost because of yesterday's holiday you might recognize this chart on my left here from when NEC director lail Brainerd visited the briefing room very recently just about a week ago it shows construction of manufacturing facility has increased by nearly 100 percent in two years adjusted for inflation on Monday we learned that the boom continued in May as the Wall Street Journal put it this is America's Factory building boom due in no small part to the chips Act and the inflation reduction Act binomics is unleashing huge private sector investments in manufacturing with businesses investing more than 490 billion dollars in manufacturing and clean energy since the president took office including more than 11 billion dollars in South Carolina where as you know we will be there tomorrow the president will be there tomorrow to announce manufacturing investment republicans in Congress again including every Republican representative from South Carolina want to threaten these Investments jobs and economic opportunities by repealing repealing the inflation reduction act which actually helps the American people but as the president said at his first inauguration he is the president for all Americans it doesn't matter if you're in a red state or a blue State and his agenda helps all Americans so tomorrow announcement will be proof of that and I hope you all get to join him on this trip with that Josh good to see you good to see you two subject areas firsthand has the U.S been in contact with adrenaline over a possible prisoner exchange for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershwin Josh I wish I could stand in front of you and say that we have news to share on Evan sadly we do not have any news to share what I can say is uh Evan along with Paul Whalen who are both wrongfully detained as you know should be home they should be home with their families I just don't have anything to share at this time and secondly per the entry go to the holiday can you give any more details on where the Secret Service found the cocaine in the west wing and how income so as you know this is under the preview of The Secret Service they are currently investigating what happened over the weekend so I would have to refer you to the secret first the Secret Service on all of this but one thing that I can share that I'll that I'll share a little bit more information as you know the the president and the first lady and their family were not here this weekend as you all reported on this and as you also know that they left on Friday and returned just yesterday where where this was discovered is a heavily traveled area where many White House West Wing I should be even more specific a West Wing visitors come through this particular area I just don't have anything more to share it is under investigation by the Secret Service this is in their purview and so we're going to going to allow uh certainly the investigation to continue and we have confident that the Secret Service will get to the bottom of this go ahead hey let's get to the bottom of what happened here well I mean I just said that we have confidence that the secret service is going to get to the bottom of this as you all know the president follows all the reporting here and he certainly was briefed by his staff on everything that we know so far but the Secret Service is investigating this is investigating what happened over the weekend we have confidence that they will get to the bottom of this second is there still a chance that Sweden will be approved by into NATO by the time of next week's Summit so look this is something that the president as you know the Sweden prime minister is here they're currently meeting as we speak right now in the Oval Office as some of your colleagues maybe yourself Steve was able to was able to uh be in in the Oval Office so look I mean we've been very clear on this we've uh We've encouraged turkey and Hungary to approve Sweden's application for NATO a membership as soon as possible and Sweden and I said this last week I've said this many times has fulfilled the commitments they made under the trilateral fandom of agreement they had agreed to win to two with Finland and turkey on the margins of the NATO Summit in the in Madrid just last year about a year ago Sweden is a strong capable defense partner that shares NATO's values and will strengthen the alliance and contr and contribute to European security and so we believe that this should occur uh that their partnership into uh them to become members in NATO as soon as possible and that's what you'll continue to hear from the president I think the Sweden prime minister being here today having a meeting with the president certainly shows that commitment I think screen just two quick follow-ups uh you said the president has been briefed on the cocaine that was found at the White House is the White House conducting its own internal investigation this is something that's under the purview of the Secret Service they're the ones who handle this investigation so it lives uh in in their purview in their world and then just a quick follow-up on this type of tour can you explain to the American people who would have access to the West Wing on this type of tour and what kind of Protocols are in place so look when it comes to a security protocol that's something that the Secret Service certainly is going to handle and so that is a question for them when it comes to when it comes to visitors to The West Wing they come for many reasons obviously we do have West Wing tours that that occur here on campus they happen in this particular past a couple of days they happened on Friday they happened on Saturday and Sunday the times that they do not happen is when there's a Federal holiday like yesterday there was not a West Wing tour and also when there's a white a large White House Event so I don't have anything more to share on on the particulars again when it comes to security when it comes to anything of those types of protocols that is something that secret service handles eventually [Music] [Laughter] [Music] incoming president [Laughter] I wonder if the cocaine episode has prompted the White House to ask the Secret Service to review its security protocol my visitors so let's go let them do their investigation again this is under their purview let's see exactly what occurred and what happened they're get going to get to the bottom of this when they meaning the Secret Service not going to get ahead of of any changes in protocol or anything like that let's let the Secret Service do their job which we believe and have all the confidence that they will get to the bottom of this episode kind of shines a light on the fact that you can bring in illegal substances into the White House so what's preventing a visitor from bringing in Anthrax or something that's not magnetic into the White House no look I totally understand the question but it is under investigation we're going to get to the bottom and to exactly what happened the Secret Service will not us and so we're going to let the Secret Service do their job I'm just not going to get ahead of of if or or whens or changes we just have to let this Secret Service do their job which they are you're welcome I agree can you just tell us how the White House is assisting the Secret Service with this investigation have you made any White House officials available for interviews with law enforcement for example well look we're not assisting in anything this is under the Secret Service purview this is their uh their kind of guidance and guideline their their world and so we're going to let them do their job we are not involved in this this is something that the Secret Service handles under their protocol and they're going to investigate and get to the bottom of what happened this weekend and we appreciate that and you know that this is an area where visitors on tour groups often pass by so is that the the working Theory right now that it was likely a visitor and are you confident that this was not a White House staff there is investigation they're going to get to the bottom of this what I want it to be very clear is that this is a heavily heavily traff heavily traveled to be more accurate area of the campus of the White House and uh and it is where visitors front to the West Wing come through this is the part where they come through when it comes to coming to the West Wing I just don't have anything else I'm not going to speculate on who it was but just wanted to make that very clear and give you all a little bit more information I believe the Secret Service is also sharing this as well another topic among the 12 Palestinians were killed in the Janine operation carried out by Israel four were under the age of 18. Israel says that all the Palestinians who were killed were combatants does the White House have an assessment of whether they were indeed all combatants or whether any civilians were killed so here's here's what I'll say um you know we as you all know and we have said this many times we support certainly Israel's security and right to defend its people against Hamas Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups it is imperative to take all possible steps to protect civilians from harm and measures need to be taken to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground and restore critical services like electricity and water to the civilian population and so don't have anything more to share beyond that but certainly we are certainly we are monitoring things very closely anything you can tell us about the level of Engagement by U.S officials to try and prevent a broader escalation I mean we've already seen Rockets fired from Gaza we've seen this uh attack that was carried out in Tel Aviv what's the White House doing to prevent this from us so you know Israel is a Ally and partner and we are in touch with the National Security and certainly the defense officials so don't have anything to read out on our conversation but we are in regular contact thanks Karine I wanted to ask about this decision we saw yesterday in Louisiana on the White House contact with social media companies the White House will have a response to the judge basically saying that this is the most massive attack on Free Speech in the US history so as you know doj is reviewing uh the decision the injunction and so I don't want to get ahead of of what of what what they will uh evaluate and their options could potentially be so not going to get ahead of the doj if you're asking me if we agree or disagree we certainly disagree with this decision and as I said the doj is reviewing this so I'm not going to get ahead of what their evaluation what options they're going to potentially take on moving forward and this President plan to make a direct appeal to Turkey or Hungary regarding Sweden's native look I think we've been very clear I just laid out where our position has been and the president has been very public has been very clear about uh about Sweden uh and so I'm just going to leave it there don't have anything else to add towards that I think again having the Prime Minister here ahead of uh ahead of uh of NATO uh next week I think is important but the president clearly has been uh has been very clear about uh Sweden becoming a member of NATO and so we'll continue uh continue to be outspoken about that and continue to be public about that I just don't have any calls to read out at this time but I think you can see by the president's actions uh and his words not just actions that he's been uh pretty uh pretty steadfast on making on saying that Sweden should become a NATO member as soon as possible get him yeah how does the White House view the Quran burning in uh in Stockholm and whether that will affect the NATO negotiations with turkey so look uh I'm not going to get into the negotiations or any diplomatic conversations from here uh clearly the burning of the Quran I as you all know is something that the president would certainly agree is is uh you know is disappointing to see but I'm just not going to get ahead of any conversations or diplomatic conversations being had uh today the Pentagon announced that it's taking steps to revamp our classified information is accessed after uh the so of helicopter information wondering if the White House has been involved in any of those conversations and and whether or not on their steps I don't have anything to read out on any conversations with the Pentagon I would I would refer you to them and then just one again okay are there concerns that an illicit substance was brought in to the White House and not detected by security uh obviously every guest that that enters the White House goes through airport-like security I'm wondering if just generally if there's concerns about the ability so let's let the Secret Service do their investigation again this is under their purview they're going to look into all the things of what happened uh over the weekend I just don't want to get ahead of that clearly the secret Services uh is in charge of security on campus and so I would really refer you to them on this prosecuted thanks Ohio Governor Mike dewine is asking a president to declare East Palestine a major disaster area after the train derailment to send the president a letter on Monday is the president considering and will he fulfill that request so um I can say this uh as it does with all of its requests FEMA it will expeditiously review the request of this particular request from the governor of Ohio as well this is something that we are we do every time this comes through us what a couple things I do want to State here as it relates to Norfolk and it and Southern to be more specific it's under a federal order to cover all costs for cleaning up its mess that it did that they caused in East Palestine East Palestine the EPA is making them pay so that the taxpayers don't have to pay for their mess and so we've been very clear about that the EPA has been on top of that and so uh when it comes to Norfolk Southern they have met their terms of the order to date and they are stiff penalties if they do not and so epa's again has been on top of this and so just don't have anything further but as we do with every declaration that comes that comes our way the FEMA's way major to that when it comes to Major disasters they're going to take a look at this and they'll make a decision president not made the visit out there and at this point is he just not going to he's done a lot of travel in recent weeks and months so I'm just going to repeat what the president said he will travel to the area to East Palestine just don't have anything to share on travel or upcoming dates that he'll be there but the president said it he's going to go so he will go once we have a date we'll certainly share that go ahead Joey yeah thank you if the Secret Service determines uh the who brought the cocaine into the White House does the White House support the prosecution of this individual I'm just not going to get into hypotheticals From Here let let the Secret Service do their job it's under their purview we are confident that they'll get to the bottom of it I'm just not going to get ahead of this right this time so Secret Service officials are actually cautioning that they might not find the person involved because it is such a busy thoroughfare so if they don't get to the bottom of it as you're saying would the president be satisfied with sir this is a busy room and we found some cocaine but we don't know who brought it so let's see what the Secret Service says right there again this is under investigation don't want to get into hypotheticals while investigation is going going uh going on and is happening at this time just not going to get ahead of it let Secret Service do their job work on the white if I were anywhere on the complex what is the process like for me if I want to bring can you just lay out to the extent that you can the process for you know if I want to bring in family or friends as somebody who works here what is do I go to somebody in the White House do I go immediately the Secret Service and say Hey I want to do this like how how does that work so there are specific process I'm happy to share that with you uh I I want to make sure I get it right so not certainly going to lay that out right at this time but there is a process as one of your colleagues mentioned everybody does go through a process to come on to come on campus they do get vetted they go through a security process as it relates to the security piece of it I would have to refer you to secret service but certainly someone from my team can certainly lay out I think some of you may understand this process as some of you may not have heart pass and you know how this all works but just not I just want to make sure I get this right so happy to share that with you after the after the briefing a trip tomorrow as you know the president's going to go to South Carolina tomorrow he's going to certainly be making an announcement on the manufacturing and if that's a layout here of what that's going to look like give me one second I don't have that here we'll certainly share it with you after the briefing uh but I mean this all plays into what the president has been saying which is like he's a president for all Americans uh whether you're a red state or blue State and we've seen a manufacturing boom over the past two years since the president's been here and you see that in South Carolina and so the president's going to go to South Carolina make an announcement we shared some of that with you all already there was some preview stories that some of you some of you saw and so the president is looking forward to uh to doing that but again this is something that the president has said he wants to make sure that we build an economy from the bottom up middle out that leaves no one behind and when you think about manufacturing jobs those jobs are going to be going to be really important union jobs that going to uh there that are going to uh you know make sure that people have have who are around the kitchen table and now have an opportunity to really look at their cost at the end of the month and be able to have a good job that pays you know 6 six figures without some of those jobs the majority of those jobs without a college education that's important that is what it means to have equality at the center of Economic Policy what that is what it means to make sure that we have we have an economy that works for all so that's what you're going to hear from the president and this is also by nomics right we've been talking about binomics since last week and how it's delivering you look at the data you look at the numbers you look at the 13 million jobs that's been created again the 800 000 manufacturing jobs you look at what the inflation reduction act has been able to do the bipartisan infrastructure legislation has been able to do all are important key parts of the president's plan and that's what the president's going to speak to tomorrow good Steve just to clarify for us we're exactly inside The West Wing the substance was discovered I'm not going to get into uh specifics or I can say is when people visit the West Wing there is an air there is the area of the West Wing where it is highly traveled and that is what happens people come through this particular area is highly traveled I'm just not going to get into specifics I'm not going to get into uh I'm not going to get ahead of the Secret Service and so I'll let them speak to that there are a couple of primary entrances into the West Wing there's the one with which we're all familiar right outside of the driveway where the Marine stands when the president's In The West Wing and there's another entrance off West Executive Avenue can you explain which which entrance we're talking I'm going to let the Secret Service speak to them uh can you explain why you can't explain it I mean you described it as a heavily traveled area that's what the secret I'm just saying with the Secret Service uh said we got this from the Secret Service so I'm sharing a little bit more with you uh from here but again it's under their purview it's under investigation they will they will have more specifics down the road as they are looking into this we are confident that they will get to the bottom of this and so I'm just going to leave it to them the substance was discovered late on Sunday what's the latest staff-led tours that happen in the west wing on a Sunday you know I don't have the specific on how late the staff tours uh staff LED tours go but I can tell you that there was one on Friday there was one on Saturday it was on one on Sunday the times that there are not any West Wing tours is when there is a Federal holiday like yesterday or a big a White House a large White House Event I just don't have the specifics let's let's let the Secret Service get to the bottom of this they'll have more hopefully more information and we have confident that they will be able to figure this all out so I'm going to give them the space to do that excuse me as you've now been referring multiple times to this investigation into the White House's confidence that they will get to the bottom of it I'm wondering if you could be a bit clearer about what exactly the scope and mission of the investigation is and what exactly getting to the bottom of it means is this simply a fact-finding mission to determine whether a potential security protocols were either insufficient or violated in this case or is this with an eye towards potential criminal prosecution of an individual who's bringing a banned substance into the west wing and would there then be consequences either for that individual or a if they were a guest of a White House staff for that stuff so look the second part of your question is speculation and I'm just not going to get into speculation from here what I can say is again Secret Service is looking into this they're looking to what happened over the weekend I'm just not going to jump into speculation as to what what their investigation will find and what we will do or what will happen just not going to get into speculation from here as it relates to this district judge ruling about social media and the injunction thereof can you speak to the frequency of contacts that White House officials or Administration officials more broadly have with social media companies and the types of content that they would be flagging and how much is this a blow to the White House's goal of preventing the dissemination of misinformation so look I can't speak to the amounts that contact has I mean that is just not a possible thing to do from here what I can say is that doj again is reviewing the injunction and they're going to look into uh you know evaluate our options so just not going to get ahead of that and so I'll just leave that from here okay okay um will any White House staffers will anyone have Snappers the undergoing drug testing as part of this investigation so as you know um uh again this is under the purview of the Secret Service but a couple of things that I would add is that white house is subject to rigorous guidelines that include drug testing and so we will take any action is that is appropriate and warranted pending the outcome of the Secret Service just not going to get into hypotheticals from here but uh you know this is something that when it comes to drug testing certainly we take that very seriously and so there's our they are indeed rigorous guidelines here at the White House there was a story in the New York Times over the weekend about Hunter Biden's daughter in Arkansas uh does the president acknowledge this little girl as his granddaughter I don't have anything to share from here that's great not good okay great thanks um yesterday Ukrainian president zelinski mentioned that um so that they have intelligence that the Russian military has placed objects resembling explosives on the roots of The Apparition Power Nuclear Power Plant is the president monitoring this um has he spoken to zielinski and could it possibly impact his trip to me to the native side so um just a couple of things we are continuing to monitor uh the conditions at the power plant closely this is something that clearly we've been doing for some time as we've said before when you know Russia's continued military occupation of the nuclear plant is dangerous and when it comes to nuclear plant there should not be fighting there and so we've been very clear but I don't have anything new or specific on the recent reports or anything to share at this time I don't have any calls any recent calls to president zielinski the president is looking forward to going to the NATO Summit as he will be doing next week and certainly we'll have more to share on the details of that trip thanks screen uh actually following up on that there's a there's a movement on Capitol Hill uh to pass legislation that would uh state that any nuclear fallout including from uh damage to the separation due to a power plant would be treated as uh uh would trigger Article 5 of NATO if that Fallout were to go over NATO territory do you support that bill I'm not going to speak to that particular Bill what I can say is we continue to monitor the situation we don't have anything new or anything specific on recent reports that you all are certainly reporting from the president but just don't have anything new to share so we're going to continue to Monitor and we've been very clear we've been very clear that Russia's occupation of this plant is dangerous and there should not be fighting near this plant we've said this before we've been very clear about this and we're going to continue to monitor to mentioned that folks from the boy has were in touch with local officials over shooting so the past couple days and you mentioned machine with Fort Worth do you know who was in touch with Fort Worth officials so as you know we have the intergovernmental Affairs my team my my colleagues here and certainly they are usually regular touch with local officials I don't have any names specific to share with you at this time but the White House we have White House offices that are regularly in touch with what's going on on the ground it's including the intern in the our government intergovernmental Affairs team here at the White House so that continues to be the case and then just lastly on the the cocaine that was found uh following up on Tyler's question one thing that you're not expressing is concern over the fact that this was found on the property and I guess I'm wondering how expressing concern would somehow get ahead of us a secret service investigation I think this is nervous we're going to let them let them get to the bottom of this and see what happened I'm just not going to get ahead of it just not okay um a couple questions on the uh the ruling the social media ruling from from yesterday um one I wonder why while the doj is reviewing its options is there any immediate day-to-day impact on the administration's activities here at the White House's activities so we've been very we've been uh very kind of consistent uh We've we are going to continue to promote responsible actions to protect Public Health Safety and Security when confronted by challenges like a deadly pandemic and foreign attacks in our election so we're going to continue uh to be to to do that in a to promote that in a responsible way our view remains that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to take action or to to take account of the effects of their platforms or having to be American people but make independent choices about the information they present they are private as you know entity and it is their responsibility uh to uh you know to to act accordingly and so we're going to continue to be responsible in that way but again when it comes to this doj is reviewing the injunction they'll do so and they'll evaluate their options conjunction there were a number of people specifically named I wonder if there is any concern about the one a broader chilling effect of civil servants of government employees being unwilling to do things that may put to you know end up with uh them being named in a lawsuit and secondly whether there's any concern about those people who are named facing personal harassment where there's been any steps taken to Shield them from that no I appreciate the question look I'm going to let doj manage this piece it's under uh certainly it's under their review right now the injection they're gonna look I look I'm just not going to to speak to this any further I'm just going to let doj do their job look at their evaluate their options and really uh respond to this in in the best way that they can I'm just not going to get into individuals or employees from here thank you Corinne just to follow up my colleague's questions on the president supporting Sweden's attention to Nato I know that he has said that he supports turkey getting f-16s but has the White House reached out to Senator Menendez whom I understand is still opposed to the sale have you reached out to his office and if you haven't are you planning to Before the bill in this Summit so I'm not going to get into private conversations with members of Congress you know where the president stands on this he's been very clear when as it relates to f-16s in Turkey just not going to get uh into uh you know private conversation with members of Congress one more on Ukraine Place ahead of the summit can you just clarify the president's latest position on providing security guarantees to Ukraine and explain the thinking behind not giving Keith what it wants which is essentially a prime yes to membership when the war ends I just want you to clarify what the president's thinking about in terms of what kind of security guarantees to provide to keep see so we'll say that one more time when the war ends yeah so the Ukraine has been saying that what they want from the NATO business Summit is a clear signal that when the conflict ends Ukraine has a pathway a clear pathway and timeline to uh to membership so yours are about NATO membership specifically correct okay but I mean I think the the understanding is that one of one of The Reluctant um you know leaders in the alliance is present by it and I just want you to explain uh what's behind this thing we've been very clear we're committed to NATO's open door policy we've we've been very clear about this when when this question comes up in the briefing we've been very clear and have have said uh have been showed our commitment this is a commitment that we've had for some time right as it relates to Nato any decision on NATO membership is between the 31 allies and aspirin country and so in this case when it comes to Ukraine we have been discussing with our NATO allies in Ukraine how we can Collective collectively support Ukraine's Asbury duration for euro-atlantic integration but I'm not going to get into details I'm not going to get into private conversations from here and the president has said he has said this over and over again Ukraine would have to make reforms to meet the same standards as any NATO country before they join he said this thinks he thinks that this can be do can can be done that Ukraine can do that so I'm not going to get ahead of private conversations from here but again we we are committed and we have been committed to NATO's open door policy and we will continue to do so okay Sebastian thank you do you have any uh comments or confirmation on there was a report in the Wall Street Journal that the U.S is looking to restrict Chinese access to cloud computing yeah we don't have anything else to on top of that uh to add don't have anything new to add on that follow up to um how worried December 5 000 reports are alignments describe the level of so look look this is something that we've as you know been monitoring we've been very clear about how we seize Russia's involvement here when when it comes to occupying the nuclear plant we think it is incredibly dangerous and there should be no fighting there that is something that we've said over and over again it will continue to monitor monitor we have not seen anything new to the reporting that has been laid out just don't have anything else to share on this obviously we think it's dangerous we've been very clear about that okay thanks green a recent Gallup poll shows that only 31 percent of Americans have confidence in the US government is that number concerning to the administration at all what's this what the president focuses on is how he's going to continue to deliver for the American people that's the president's focus in the last two years we've seen the data when it comes to the economy doing just that and you know when people asked us why we're talking about bionomics now because we understand that people the American people need to hear from us directly what we have been able to do the last two years how historic it has been how we've been able to create a historic amount of jobs 13 million jobs you're going to hear from the president in South Carolina a red State a state that again the president said he's a president for all Americans he's going to go right into an area for people who didn't vote for him many people didn't vote for him and he's going to say how he's delivered for them when it comes to manufacturing how we're seeing these manufacturing companies invest and so that's what's important we understand that some people just don't feel it quite yet as you're laying out a poll to me but we're going to make sure that we are very clear that under employment is under is under four percent which is really important for people to know that manufacturing jobs eight hundred thousand manufacturing jobs that have been created that's really important for people to know and so we're going to continue to make sure that we grow an economy that leaves no one behind uh and uh that uh here you know when we talk about Dynamics it's about building an economy from the bottom up middle out so we're going to continue to have those conversations the president enjoys talking directly to the American people that's what you're going to see from the president tomorrow and also as we continue our invest in America Tour as you see cabinet members crisscross the country having those same conversations and we think that's what's important thank you this is a follow-up to the comments you made at the top of the briefing about the one year anniversary of the Highland Park shootings and the comment and a statement that President Biden made yesterday noting that after the tragedy in the summer that the state of Illinois passed an assault weapon band so my question is kind of imply that if only others could replicate that Illinois has a all-democratic leadership Democratic governor the state senate a super majority Democrats the State House is super majority Democrat Highland Park itself even had an assault weapon ban how would you in the wake of a continuing number of incidents since Parade shooting a year ago as recently as in the last few days what is the best strategy going forward that the White House has in getting anything even some incremental measure passed so let's just let me reiterate it is tragic when you see communities uh dealing with gun violence and the trauma that those communities those families have to go through and so I just want to be incredibly sensitive to that it is gun violence is an epidemic in our country the president understands this the president his heart and his thoughts certainly are with those families and is devastating to see devastating to see and so obviously anytime that happens right now it's happening way too much you're going to hear from us and we're going to speak to that as it relates to what else can be done one of the reasons that we lift up States like Illinois and other states that have been able to get an assault weapons ban done or get more done as it relates to gun reform because it's important it's important to highlight and to show that states can also get involved and make change in their own State and protect their communities protect their kids protect people who are who are vulnerable who are who are dying essentially because of this epidemic so the president every time you hear me sadly talk about gun violence that occurred we talk about the states who have been able to get through either assault weapons ban or some sort of Common Sense gun reform so we're going to continue to do that because there is a path there is a way for folks to protect their communities in their state but at the end of the day what we will continue to say what the president will continue to say is that republicans in Congress need to act they have we Federal legislation the president has done more than two dozen executive orders he has done everything that he can we're always looking to do more from right here in the White House and it is time it is time that we get something done to protect our kids to protect to protect our schools to protect communities protect grocery stores to protect all of these uh different sadly areas that we have seen this type of gun violence so the president's going to continue to say that we're going to continue to use the bully pulpit we're going to continue to stay right here at this at this Podium and so that is an important way to make sure that there's action let's not forget it's a little bit more than a year ago after 30 years of seeing no action right no action on gun violence the president was able to get a bipartisan bipartisan deal made to move forward a little bit more on dealing with gun violence so things can be done executive actions legislation we just need more you've described uh your concern over over a crossing the line of the Hatch Act from the podium but can you talk about the president himself the president is not covered by the hijack how does he think about the red lines when it comes to his use of office to advance his political AIMS in his re-election do you have anything specific are there parts of the White House that he won't use for political activities for example like the Oval Office or the South lawn and we saw the previous president use the South lawn and South Portico as a backdrop for accepting the nomination of his party are there red lines for the president himself on how he'll use the office in the white house or the backdrop for his political so look you know the president uh uh is proud to have restored the rule of law uh in his administration and I can tell you here and I can tell you now that he will not exploit uh his uh his office with conventions at the White House like it was done in the last Administration he will not do that in his on the south lawn in his administration I can uh I can assure you that will not happen in this Administration or using parts of the White House he will not exploit he will not exploit uh his office uh to uh for political game in the way that we saw in the last Administration yeah the injection do you plan to change your approach to social media policy in the wake of the Louisiana judge's ruling a lot of it had to do with like the pandemic which is now over are you still taking the same approach with social media now as you were then and will you change now look again the doj is uh looking at this it's under their review they're reviewing this the injunction so I'm not going to get ahead of them they're going to look at they're going to evaluate all the options so I'm going to say that put that out there to you at this time but look we're going to continue to promote responsible actions I said this moments ago that is something that we're going to continue to do to make sure that we protect Public Health to make sure that their Safety and Security so that is something that we're going to continue to do we do disagree I said this earlier moments ago we do disagree with this decision but the doj is going to take a look at this and they'll come up and they'll come up and and with their own options and evaluate this specifically do you disagree with the judges Rule and that this coordination was the form of censorship and specifically targeted conservative speech look disagree with the decision I'll leave it there and I'm going to let doj do their move forward with their evaluating process okay okay um one more on cocaine how determined as the president to get to the bottom of the broad illegal drugs into the White House Secret Service is getting to the bottom and that's what matters and it's under their purview it was the question was how determined is the president the president thinks it's very important to get to the bottom of this that's why Secret Service which is under their purview is looking into this and they're going to look into what happened this weekend so the president thinks this is incredibly important to get to the bottom of this Administration be appealing the injection the ruling I just said the doj is reviewing this injunction and they're going to look at they're going to evaluate their options so it's for their decision to make and can you just respond to the judge's accusation that each topic suppressed by the administration was a conservative view he had a pretty strong statement the US government seems to have assumed a role similar to an orwellian Ministry of Truth can you respond to that I'm just not going to respond to the attorney general the judge I'll let the Department of Justice do that and then I know you can't talk about 2024. they're just this is like the sixth question I'm sorry I'll let you go after this I know you can talk about 124 but how will this ruling impact the administration's efforts to get its messaging out ahead of the election I'm just not going to speak about 2024 we respect the rule of law and I'll leave it there okay guys I'll see you later this week or tomorrow thank you

Channel: Fox News

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Keywords: Fox News Channel, FNC, Fox News, News, fox news live stream, live, livestream, fox news live, fox live, white house, white house briefing, white house press briefing today, white house press briefing today live, biden, biden admin, biden administration, biden white house, president joe biden, karine jean pierre, white house press secretary, white house press briefing, white house press secretary karine jean pierre, press secretary karine jean pierre

Id: EpjM6X5s3NA

Length: 43min 55sec (2635 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2023