White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to say Wednesday that Washington, DC, is safe for Americans to visit.
Jean-Pierre evaded a question from a reporter who asked: “In DC, homicides are up. Crime is up. Carjacking is spiking. Simple question: does the president believe the nation’s capital is safe for Americans from across the country to come and visit.
“I mean, look …” Jean-Pierre began.
“All violent crime, anywhere, is completely unacceptable, not just here in D.C.,” she continued, saying she did not want to “get into politics.”
“The president is wanting to make sure that communities feel safe, and we’re not seeing that from congressional Republicans, we’re just not. They continue to get in the way,” she said.
Few of America’s major cities, which are experiencing a surge in crime, are governed by Republicans — least of all D.C.
The question came after Jean-Pierre was asked to react to the shooting Wednesday of three D.C. Metro police officers who were wounded while trying to serve a warrant for an arrest for animal cruelty.
Jean-Pierre did not mention the shooting in a press conference that lasted an hour, and had actually left the podium — until a shouted question from a reporter prompted her to return and deliver a comment.
D.C. has suffered a number of high-profile violent crimes recently, including the murder of former Trump aide Mike Gill during a carjacking.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
