Curtis Houck showed some love to a non-Doocy member of Fox News’ right-wing reporting staff for lobbing biased questions at White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during the Jan. 17 press briefing:
Towards the end of Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich confronted Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre with not one, but two bald-faced recent falsehoods offered up by the Biden administration about the border crisis that Republicans want to cut the number of Border Patrol agents and that Texas officials were responsible for the death of three illegal immigrants in the Rio Grande.
Having caught the National Security Council’s John Kirby as unable to “name a single lawmaker who has called to reduce the number of Border Patrol agents” during the January 4 briefing, Heinrich cut right to the chase with Jean-Pierre: “Why are you repeating this false claim that Republicans voted to reduce the number of Border Patrol agents even though The Washington Post gave the administration three Pinnochioes for that?”
Hilariously, Jean-Pierre immediately doubled down: “So, we don’t believe it’s a false claim. Our statements were very direct here. Last year, House GOP voted — voted — and not only did they vote for it, they touted — they touted their Limit, Save, Grow Act. That’s the act.”
Heinrich stepped in to point out House Republicans insisted their plan to cut government spending “would never — never affect Border Patrol” and “clearly stated at that time that Border Patrol, also veterans benefits, and entitlements would never be impacted”.
But, given the liberal media’s penchant for both covering for the White House’s lies and cosplaying grocery store gossip magazines over the various Trump trials, there was no reason for Jean-Pierre to change her lying ways[.]
Houck praised Heinrich for continuing to pump out right-wing border-obsession narratives in the Jan. 19 briefing:
While much of the questions during Friday afternoon’s White House press briefing centered on the Middle East, abortion, and Ukraine, Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich stuck to the border and got the ever-inept Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to play dumb on a basic question: does the White House think the border is secure?
She arrived at that direction question by way of a recent House resolution: “What is the administration’s response to the 14 House Democrats who voted with Republicans the other day to denounce the ‘open border policies of the Biden administration’?”
Jean-Pierre expressed befuddlement, so Heinrich restated: “Would you have a response to 14 Democrats in the House believing that this President has open-border policies?”
The Press Secretary then decided to offer up an answer, insisting the White House has “been very clear” about “want[ing] to deal with…the border” and has been evidenced by “conversations, these negotiations in the Senate with Republicans and Democrats” (even though it’s a group of senators who decided to band together) and Biden’s supplemental funding request (i.e. throw money at it).
Among the many possible statements and exasperating one could make at hearing this, here’s one fact/question: If it’s so porous, why wasn’t the administration able to “deal with” it when their party also controlled Congress?
This led Heinrich to ask what should have been a yes or no question: “Is it — is it still the position of the administration that the border is secure?”
Like her predecessor Jen Psaki refused to call it a crisis, Jean-Pierre ducked what’s objectively a resounding no: “Our position is that we need to do more at the border. We have to do more at the border. That’s why these negotiations are currently happening. That’s our position.”
Heinrich used the reminder of her time to ask whether “the administration” sees “the efforts to impeach Secretary Mayorkas” as “unconstitutional.”
Of course, Jean-Pierre was somehow unprepared and instead blabbered about “shameful” “House Republicans…playing political games” and “not doing their jobs — the jobs that the American people want them to be doing” as evidenced by “the midterms in 2022.”
Houck always gets mad when Jean-Pierre refuses to play along with right-wing narratives.
Houck was able to get back fluffing his mancrush for the Jan. 22 briefing:
Monday’s Doocy Time was off to a raring start as, after some banter with the ever-inept Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wondering where Doocy had been (since his last appearance on January 11), Doocy cut to the case on Biden’s mental fitness, the border crisis, and a simple question Democrats refuse to answer: When, if at all, does President Biden believe abortions should be limited?
Thankfully, he had help on the border from the Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese and on abortion from EWTN producer Toby Capion, who had an equally important question: Does President Biden believe unborn children have rights?
But Doocy first led with the age question: “Karine, why do you think it is that more and more people polled feel like, over time, President Biden is getting less and less mentally sharp?”
Asked to cite which poll, Doocy relayed that “ABC has President Biden’s rating for health since May down five points and for mental sharpness down four points.”
[…]Doocy pivoted to immigration and a disturbing revelation in the dark-blue, rich, white D.C. suburb Fairfax County, Virginia that law enforcement there “ignored an ICE detainer” and thus “released an illegal immigrants from Honduras who’s charged with sexually assaulting a Virginia minor and production of sexual abuse material.”
“Doesn’t that go to show that, as record numbers of people appear at the border, you guys have no idea what kind of people are coming into this country,” he asked.
Jean-Pierre insisted this was an example of why Biden’s “having negotiations with the Senate, Senators, Republicans and Democrats…to deal with…border security” (even though the White House is only there in a supporting role) and why he “on day one, put forward a comprehensive immigration plan…Congress didn’t do anything about” (which was little more than a liberal wishlist).
The abortion question was “important” to right-wing ideologues desiring to play gotcha. Houck refused to identify Doocy, Reese and Capion as right-wing ideologues, even though he would hang such a label on reporters for non-right-wing outlets.
Houck also whined that after Doocy asked a narrative-forwarding question about Biden’s mental issues, Jean-Pierre “went on a bizarre aside asserting without evidence that Donald Trump is his favorite President.” Of course, Houck routinely makes evidence-free assertions about the purported bias of non-right-wing reporters — and he ignores that Doocy’s right-wing bias is abundantly clear, as evidenced by the praise he so regularly heaps upon the gay. Houck wouldn’t be so eager to praise Doocy if he wasn’t a Fox News employee paid to advance right-wing narratives.