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WH press secretary gets scorched for fumbled explanation on China spy flights: 'What a load of crap'
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre struggled to answer a question about Chinese spy balloons in recent years, and commentators on the internet roasted her for it.
Politics
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was blasted on Monday after she tried to explain the revelation that there had been three Chinese spy balloons during the Trump administration but were never informed.
A Chinese spy balloon was discovered flying over the United States over the weekend and was eventually shot down. The incident caused outrage on Capitol Hill and left Americans wondering why the spy balloon wasn't detected earlier or stopped before flying over large portions of the country. A defense official said on Saturday that there have been three instances of Chinese spy balloons that briefly traveled over the United States during the Trump administration. Trump and his top defense and national security officials told Fox News Digital that they were never briefed on any Chinese spy flights during Trump’s tenure.
During the White House press briefing, a reporter asked Jean-Pierre, "How is it possible that this administration discovered at least three previous balloons that flew over the U.S. under the previous administration, but Trump officials didn't know it was happening?"
"Yeah, so, look, I think that — and we have talked about this before, about how the — when it — when the PRC government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. briefly at least three times, as you just mentioned, during the President’s — the prior administration and once that we know of the beginning of this administration’s," she said. "But never for this duration of time, as we know."
Conservatives found her answer unconvincing.
Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker tweeted, "What a load of crap."
"It’s so cringe to watch her lie, deflect, mumble, stumble, make it up as she goes along and ignore adult questions," public relations specialist Cheryl Riley tweeted.
Independent Women’s Forum fellow Erin Perrine slammed the spokeswoman for not appearing prepared for the question.
"KJP does a disservice when she does not prep on simple questions like this. It has been news today that Trump admin officials were on the record saying these types of Chinese balloons did not happen then," she tweeted. "Seriously folks. Not hard to guess what questions might come up. Prep."