Bernie Sanders campaign alumnus (from both 2016 and 2020) Melissa Byrne tried to spin criticisms of Karine Jean-Pierre as “racist and sexist” after the new White House press secretary’s embattled first day on the job.
The conversation began with a tweeted video of Jean-Pierre struggling to answer a question from Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy — about President Joe Biden’s claim that raising corporate taxes would somehow lower inflation — and coming up decidedly short.
Watch what happens when Peter Doocy asks the new White House press secretary how raising taxes on the rich brings down inflation, as Biden tweeted last week.
Big yikes. pic.twitter.com/UIsACtP8Hv
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) May 16, 2022
Jean-Pierre responded to Doocy’s question by flipping through her briefing book and appeared to read a series of talking points about promoting “equity” in taxation and asking the wealthiest among us to “pay their fair share” – but at no point did she connect the dots and explain how achieving equity in taxation would work to lower inflation.
“My God she is bad at this job. She is visibly flipping through the briefing book and staring down at it while she reads off canned talking points that don’t remotely answer the question,” Robert Tracinski commented.
National Review senior write Dan McLaughlin weighed in then, saying, “It’s the White House. This was literally the most prepared person they could find?”
That was when Byrne joined the conversation, accusing McLaughlin of being critical of Jean-Pierre only because of her sex and race. “Racist Sexist Men roll call,” she tweeted.
Racist Sexist Men roll call https://t.co/JHZPEZG7Kn
— melissa “cancel student debt” byrne (@mcbyrne) May 17, 2022
“It’s called having standards. I send you into court, I expect better than this. Same from the press podium. Responses like this would fail a Turing test,” McLaughlin replied, referencing the “Turing test” and effectively suggesting Byrne’s comments failed to “demonstrate human intelligence.”
According to Investopedia, “The Turing Test is a deceptively simple method of determining whether a machine can demonstrate human intelligence: If a machine can engage in a conversation with a human without being detected as a machine, it has demonstrated human intelligence.”
But the conversation did not end there, as Byrne repeatedly attempted to claim that McLaughlin was racist and sexist and insisted that she was actually winning the argument.
“Im sorry. Someone at the NRO has an opinion on standards? You just can’t stand seeing a Black woman exceeding you professionally. Therapy is helpful for working through your inadequacies,” she claimed.
“Second try at the Turing test didn’t go better than the first,” was McLaughlin’s reply.
“Says the person who works for the NRO and has to attack a press sec to feel like a man,” Byrne tried again.
“Third try, becoming increasingly recursive,” McLaughlin shot back.
“Im still winning,” Byrne insisted. “Go work through your inadequacies.”
“Fourth try, now running familiar scripts,” McLaughlin said, prompting Byrne to once again claim that she was “still winning” and add, “I love how mad you are right now.”
Still winning. I love how mad you are right now. https://t.co/w5OXNxIFcg
— melissa “cancel student debt” byrne (@mcbyrne) May 17, 2022
McLaughlin, who was apparently so “mad” that he went to sleep and ignored Byrne’s latest dig until morning, added, “LOL there was a fifth attempt last night, still nothing that would pass a Turing test.”
“Love getting under the skin of racist men,” Byrne tried once more, but McLaughlin wasn’t biting.
“Sixth! Still nothing you couldn’t program from a bot,” he said.
Sixth! Still nothing you couldn't program from a bot. https://t.co/ffYUXtP5Sc
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) May 17, 2022