After spewing its usual hate at White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre throughout most of March, the Media Research Center ended the month on something of a whimper, focusing on a media appearance instead of a briefing. Tom Olohan spent a March 27 post hatefully accusing in Jean-Pierre of [checks notes] doing her job and advocating for her employer:
After White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spewed Bidenomics propaganda on the radio, she was smart enough to leave immediately.
Jean-Pierre abruptly left a March 26 interview with 99.3 WBT’s The Brett Winterble Show after fielding questions on President Joe Biden’s age and the high prices Americans face under his administration.
During the interview host and News Director Mark Garrison mentioned high gas and grocery prices, asking Jean-Pierre, “How does Mr. Biden win votes when people don’t have as much disposable income?”
Jean-Pierre proceeded to hypocritically blame a pandemic that began in early 2020 for Biden’s struggles before directly proceeding to criticize former President Donald Trump for “leaving the economy in a tailspin” for Biden to handle in 2021.
Jean-Pierre said, “You have to remember when the president walked into this administration, there were multiple crises happening. There was COVID…the economy was in a tailspin because of the last administration, because of what President Trump left us with.”
Yes, Jean-Pierre, it is completely fitting to ignore the impact of the pandemic and the lockdowns of 2020 to denigrate Trump’s economic performance, but still insist that the Biden economy be graded on a curve because he took office in 2021 after millions of people were vaccinated.
We don’t recall Olohan or anyone else at the MRC accusing, say, Kayleigh McEnany of engaging in “propaganda” while serving as Trump’s press secretary. Instead, Olohan served up his own propaganda:
It’s no wonder Biden’s proud propagandist ended the interview there. Biden did drain 180 million barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2022, which is intended for emergencies. Nevertheless, gas prices are still higher under Biden than under Trump, rising from $2.42 a gallon in Jan. 2021 to $3.33 a gallon in Feb. 2024. Should Americans really be grateful because they remember that things were even worse at another point in the Biden administration?
After all, Americans already had to fork over the money. Americans’ average personal savings rate has dropped from 12.8% on Feb. 1, 2021, to 3.8% on Jan. 1, 2024.
Jean-Pierre also avoided any challenge to her claim about Americans spending less at the grocery store. If Jean-Pierre had stayed, she may have faced further unflattering comparisons. Prices have risen 18.5% on Biden’s watch and Americans have been buffeted by 5.6% average monthly inflation under Biden.
Olohan didn’t mention that WBT is in Charlotte, N.C. — suggesting that the MRC was a little desperate for Karine-bashing content — and that host Winterble is a former producer for Rush Limbaugh, meaning that Jean-Pierre was venturing into hostile territory by doing the interview. (For another example of that hostile territory, WBT also airs Mark Levin’s show.)
Olohan tried to make a big deal out of Jean-Pierre supposedly ending the interview abruptly: “Hanging up may save the embattled press secretary some embarrassment, but it’s not going to make Americans any more grateful.” Nothing like responding to claims of propaganda with, well, more propaganda.