White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has provided direct answers to just 2% of questions she has been asked about President Biden's classified documents and Hunter Biden's overseas business deals.
The Media Research Center, a conservative "media watchdog," reported that out of 252 questions between January 2023 and the end of June in 2023, Jean-Pierre gave a definitive answer just six times.
This included 217 questions about classified documents and 35 questions about Hunter Biden's business deals. Five questions were directly answered about the documents, leaving room for just one definitive answer about the president's son.
According to the Daily Mail, to have answered "concretely" meant that the response had to have either directly answered the question, clarified an ambiguity or provide new information, or even correctly given a "yes" or "no" answer.
As well, White House spokesman Ian Sams conducted a handful of press conferences and calls for questions related to the classified documents, according to NewsBusters. These started in late January 2023, but lasted just over a week, with the last occurring on February 1, 2023.
Sams reportedly did not provide a straight answer to any of the 15 questions posed by reporters and mostly referred journalists to the Justice Department or said he couldn't discuss the details of the documents.
Jean-Pierre also reportedly didn't answer questions during the briefings and deferred to White House counsel.
NewsBusters provided the transcripts of the five answers the press secretary actually gave regarding the classified documents, which maxed out at 10 words in one instance.
January 12
PHIL MATTINGLY (CNN): So should we assume that [the search for additional documents] has been completed?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: It — you should assume that it’s been completed, yes.
January 13
STEVEN PORTNOY (CBS): Were you or any member of your staff involved in the crafting of the strategy as to when this disclosure should be made in advance of CBS News breaking the story on Monday evening?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: No.
January 17
WEIJIA JIANG (CBS): On Friday, did you or did you not know about the additional five pages?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: No, I did not know.
WEIJIA JIANG (CBS): When did you learn about the documents found at the Penn Center in November and in Wilmington in December?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: When your team was — was doing a story on it.
January 24
MOLLY NAGLE (ABC): Have you spoken with the President about [the additional documents found]?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: No.
As for Jean-Pierre's one answer regarding Hunter Biden's business dealings, she simply noted the president's response to the question and then quoted him:
"Is the White House aware of any recordings in which the president might be on tape speaking to a Burisma executive?" asked Fox News' Jackie Heinrich.
"So the President spoke to this. I think he was shouted a question about this at the Thursday press conference. I’m just going to quote him and say, 'It’s malarkey,'" Jean-Pierre replied.
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