White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made an extraordinary mistake when she was questioned about the now-viral conversation between Joe Biden and Barack Obama at Ethel Kennedy’s funeral.
During the service for the Kennedy matriarch, Biden and Obama were caught on camera having an intense conversation.
Lip reader Jeremy Freeman decrypted their chat for DailyMail.com, sparking speculation they were discussing Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of winning the White House.
Biden appeared to tell Obama that “she’s not as strong as me,” and the former president responded, “I know…it’s true…we have time.”
When asked about it Thursday aboard Air Force One en route to Berlin, Jean-Pierre did not give a direct answer and made an unfortunate mistake.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that she had been “pretty busy” and had not asked President Joe Biden about his viral conversation with former President Barack Obama at Ethel Kennedy’s funeral. She is photographed at Wednesday’s briefing.
“It’s been a little busy the last two hours on the plane, as you can imagine,” he responded first.
Jean-Pierre appeared alongside national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who was peppered with questions about Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
“Look, I’ll say this: The president really, really appreciated being there at the funeral of Ethel Kennedy, who he saw as someone incredible and was obviously an incredible force in his life during her years,” Jean-Pierre responded.
“And what he wanted to do was elevate her, elevate her, and talk about her accomplishments and what she meant to him, not just to him, but to his family and the country,” the press secretary continued. “So he was grateful he did that.”
It was here where the response failed by calling Biden the “former president.”
“And we have said many times that the president and former President Biden have a very close relationship,” Jean-Pierre said.
Biden has three months and three days left in his term.
Lip reader Jeremy Freeman told DailyMail.com that President Joe Biden (left) appeared to tell former President Barack Obama that “she’s not as strong as me,” and the former president responded: “I know… that’s true ….we have time’
It was clear he was referring to former President Obama.
“They’ve had one for a long time, obviously, since he was their vice president,” he added.
“I have nothing more to share on the matter,” Jean-Pierre added. ‘I have not had this conversation with the president. Obviously we have been quite busy these last few hours on the plane,’ he reiterated.
Obama has openly expressed his concerns about the upcoming election.
Last week in Pittsburgh, Obama expressed frustration to a group of black men about how the demographic was more interested in supporting him, a man, than Harris, who could become the first woman president and the first woman president of color.
‘We have yet to see the same kind of energy and participation across all sectors of our neighborhoods and communities that we saw when I was a candidate. Now I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with brothers,” Obama said.
