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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked to clear up some details about Joe Biden’s latest whopper of a lie. Last Friday he delivered the commencement address at the Naval Academy. He told a story never before heard and not mentioned in his autobiography. Biden told the midshipmen that he applied to the Naval Academy in 1965. That couldn’t possibly be true, though. Jean-Pierre’s response was cringe-worthy.

Here’s the story – Biden told the midshipmen about applying to the Naval Academy with a letter from then-Senator J. Caleb Boggs in 1965. The problem with that is Biden graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965. He went on to say that he didn’t plan to go to the Academy because he wanted to be a football star. The Naval Academy already had two – Roger Staubach and Joe Bellino – so he went to the University of Delaware. Right. Plus, during his college days Biden received several deferments to avoid serving in the Vietnam war. He received them because of childhood asthma. Clearly, something doesn’t add up.

I’m kinda surprised that it was CBS News White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe that questioned the details of Biden’s story. He’s normally lobbing softballs to either Biden or his press secretary. He asked if Biden was confused about the timeline of his story. Instead of delivering an answer that would cover for the president’s obvious whopper of a phony story, she punted. Karine Jean-Pierre said she didn’t hear the story. O’Keefe reminded her it was at the beginning of his speech and she continued to say she didn’t hear it. She said she’d have to look at it before commenting. Does Biden’s press secretary not even bother to listen to his speeches? She’s the one tasked with answering for his remarks. You’d think she’d have an answer ready. Maybe she didn’t realize it was a fabricated story. Either way, it’s her job to be prepared.

Yikes! Maybe she’s reacting so weird because she doesn’t want to clean up his story. Earlier in the day there was a lot of buzz that Biden’s irritated that his staff keeps rushing out after his speeches to clean up his gaffes and mistakes. Perhaps she wants to hang back a bit and give him some space. The problem with that, though, is that he told the story on Friday and she was asked about it on Tuesday by a network reporter. We’ll see if his question sparked any interest from other news outlets. The press is covering for Biden more than his own press secretary in this case.

I think Jean-Pierre’s refusal to answer a pretty simple question is just another example that she’s new to the job and doesn’t seem very prepared to handle questions. The transition to a new press secretary comes at a time when Biden is sinking to his all-time lows, lower than Trump and that is really pissing Biden off. There has been a full court press from administration officials on Fox News Channel and other outlets gaslighting about what a great job Biden is doing and how everything is under control. If this is everything is under control, we really don’t want to see the administration lose control.

Senior adviser Gene Sperling was so frustrated with questions from FNC anchor Sandra Smith that by the end of the interview, Sperling was raising his voice and on the verge of flat-out yelling at her. It was great. She has a background in economics and held his feet to the fire on claims he was making. Sperling was, after all, a coordinator of the American Rescue Plan. That beauty blew a hole in the economic recovery, something Sperling denied. Sperling, along with Biden, have a new line they say. They say that Biden won’t interfere with the Federal Reserve, unlike his predecessor and other presidents did. The Obama administration alum that make up Biden’s top advisers are still way too Trump deranged to sound rational. Smith’s co-anchor, John Roberts, questioned Sperling about the Federal Reserve. Why wasn’t Biden taking Larry Summers’ advice?

Reading off a dire warning on the “inappropriate” conduct of the Federal Reserve Board from Larry Summers published in The Washington Post, “America Reports” co-host John Roberts asked why nobody surrounding Biden was listening to the former Obama official on inflation.

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Sperling insisted he would not be commenting on Summers’ critique of the Fed’s monetary policy, asserting that the administration was not in the business of “berating” or “second-guessing” the board’s independence.

“But Gene, it was a warning to everybody,” Roberts responded. “It was a comment on the Fed, but it was a warning to everybody contained in a broader warning that Sandra knows all too well from Larry Summers— inflation’s on the horizon. It’s going to bite us, we better do something about. And nobody did anything except to say, ‘Oh it’s transitory.”’

The Biden adviser responded that he disagreed with Roberts’ assessment and could quote him 20 or 30 other economic experts who thought inflation was “coming down.” He added Biden has been in lockstep with the “larger number of experts” around the world on gas prices and the price of other goods before co-host Sandra Smith interjected.

Sandra Smith jumped in and Sperling got snippy with her.

“If he has been obsessed with bringing gas prices down, why are we at a brand-new record high today?” Smith asked. “Why are we seeing $4.62 a gallon at the pump if this president’s been obsessed with tackling gas prices and inflation?”

“You know the answer to that — you know this is global,” Sperling responded. “You read the papers today. You know that the euro just said inflation was 8.1%. You read the papers last week that the U.K. was at 9%.”

Smith asked if there was nothing that could be done to bring prices down, to which Sperling asserted he has “explicitly stated the opposite,” reiterating the importance of an independent Federal Reserve.

“But this is serious stuff,” Smith argued. “This is affecting everyday Americans and cutting into their ability to provide food for their families.”

He wouldn’t even talk about economic forecasts. Sperling kept saying he isn’t a forecaster, which is odd because that is what economic advisers do. They forecast and give the president their best advice. All Sperling would say is that Biden has a “top class” council of economic advisers. Hmm. Sperling was clearly agitated that he wasn’t getting the usual softball questions from adoring media personalities on other cable networks.

Biden doesn’t have time before the midterm elections to turn the economy around and raise his poll numbers. He’s clueless and it shows. Expect to see the finger-pointing to continue as Biden blames everyone but himself for his failures. Karine Jean-Pierre better get quicker on her feet or it’s going to be a long few months until November for her.

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