Jen Psaki Obliterates A Sexist Question About Kamala Harris

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:26 pm

At the White House briefing, a reporter asked if VP Harris was still working on the border because she got a snack in Chicago. Jen Psaki knocked the question down.

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Transcript via The White House as provided to PoliticusUSA:

Q So on immigration and the border, as we discussed here today, Vice President Harris has been put in charge of addressing the root causes of the border crisis. Last Tuesday, she spoke with Guatemala’s president, but she hasn’t visited the border or Central America or spoken to the leaders of El Salvador or Honduras.

She was traveling this week. Took time to visit a bakery in Chicago. I’m wondering, is she still working on this? And can you address the perception that she’s, kind of, quietly backing off while Secretary Mayorkas is pursuing some Trump-era policies, such as potentially building new border barriers and potentially prosecuting people who illegally cross multiple times?

MS. PSAKI: There was a whole lot packed in there, so let me just see what I can do here.

First, I would say the Vice President was visiting Chicago actually to talk about COVID and the importance of communities getting the vaccine when it’s available and accessible to them. And so, while she was there, like many Americans, she got a snack. I think she’s allowed to do that.

The implied meaning of the question was that Vice President was going to Chicago instead of doing her job.

In the previous administration, Mike Pence would vanish for days and weeks at a time, and no one in the White House press pool dared to ask where he was, or why he was elsewhere instead of leading the COVID task force.

No one ever asked Barack Obama if Joe Biden was doing his job.

The same is true for Dick Cheney during the Bush administration.

I have been covering the White House since 2004, and have never heard anyone question a male vice president’s activities.

Press Secretary Psaki knocked down the question with the answer that it deserved. Kamala Harris does not need the permission of the men folk to visit a bakery in Chicago while she is there to talk about COVID.

The reason why so many in the corporate media felt a kinship with Trump is that they are just as sexist as he is.

Vice President Harris should be held to the same standards as previous VPs and that means not asking sexist questions about if she is doing her job.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association