White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday refused to apologize to Japan after President Joe Biden, 81, called the U.S. ally “xenophobic.”
While delivering live remarks at a campaign fundraiser in Washington, Biden said the United States’s economy was strong due in part “because we welcome immigrants.”
Biden, whom special counsel Robert Hur characterized as “an elderly man with a poor memory,” contrasted America to U.S. ally Japan and adversarial China, and Russia.
“Think about it,” Biden said referencing why their economies allegedly struggle. “Why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia?”
“Because they’re xenophobic,” he said. “They don’t want immigrants.”Japan is a longtime ally of the U.S. as a counterweight to China’s growing aggression in the Asia-Pacific. Biden recently worked to build trust with Japan. In April, he hosted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a summit and state dinner.
Jean-Pierre refused to apologize for Biden’s comment when asked during Thursday’s gaggle with the White House press pool.
File/U.S. President Joe Biden holds a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (R) and Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos (L) at the White House on April 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty)
“The president last night described Japan as ‘xenophobic’ along with China and Russia. Was that intentional? a reporter asked Jean-Pierre. “Does the president want to apologize to Japan?”
“The broader case that he was trying to make,” Jean-Pierre replied, “which I think most — most leaders and allies across the globe understand, is he’s — he was trying — he was saying that when it comes to — when it comes to — when it comes to who we are as a nation, we are a nation of — of immigrants. That is in our DNA.”
Jean-Pierre continued to avoid apologizing:
And — and so — and you’ve heard the President say this, and you’ve heard us say it more as an administration. It’s in — it makes us better. We are stronger for it because of the fact that in our DNA we are a nation of immigrants. And I think that’s probably very important to note as well. And that’s what he was —
Jean-Pierre’s claim that mass migration makes the United States stronger. Evidence shows that pro-migration policies might hurt American workers. “This colonialism-like policy extracts vast amounts of human resources from needy countries, reduces beneficial trade, and uses the imported workers, renters, and consumers to grow Wall Street and urban economies, such as New York,” Breitbart News’s Neil Munro wrote:
The migrant inflow has successfully forced down Americans’ wages and also boosted rents and housing prices. The inflow has also pushed many native-born Americans out of careers in a wide variety of business sectors and contributed to the rising death rate of poor Americans.
The lethal policy also sucks jobs and wealth from heartland states by subsidizing coastal investors with a flood of low-wage workers, high-occupancy renters, and government-aided consumers.
The population inflow also reduces the political clout of native-born Americans, because the population replacement allows elites to divorce themselves from the needs and interests of ordinary Americans.
REPORTER: "The word 'xenophobic' is a very pejorative and negative word, particularly to use against an ally. Is that what [Biden] meant?"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 2, 2024
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: "The president was very clear!"
REPORTER: "He wasn't very clear — that's why we're asking you." pic.twitter.com/EbEa9qEmsV
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
