Karine Jean-Pierre bristles when pressed on past democracy warnings: Do not appreciate having my words twisted

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre became testy after Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich questioned her about a change in President Biden’s rhetoric before and after the election.In brief remarks Thursday, Biden said he congratulated President-elect Trump on his victory and assured that his entire administration would work “to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition.” He emphasized unity and spoke about political campaigns as a “contest of competing visions” that the country chooses between.“We accept the choice the country made.I’ve said many times, you can’t love your country only when you win.

You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree.Something I hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, you see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans,” Biden said. Heinrich, however, recalled Biden’s history of warning that Trump and his supporters are threats to American democracy.“As you’ve mentioned, you know, this administration messaged to millions of Americans that they’re going to wake up the day after the election if Trump won and have their rights stripped away, that democracy would crumble.

And the president said today, ‘We’re going to be okay,’ So how do you square that?” she asked the press secretary.“I can square that,” Jean-Pierre said.“I’m going to square that in a way that hopefully makes sense, because I’ve been answering this question multiple times.

The American people made the decision.There was an election two nights ago.

There was.And it was a free and fair election.

And we respect the election process.We do.

And Americans spoke.And so the job of the president is to make sure we respect that.

The job of the president is to make sure that we have a peaceful transfer of power.That is what the American people deserve.”She later added that Biden has played his part in the peaceful transfer of power, “because the president wants to lead by examp...