New White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got some support from an unlikely place when “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt jumped to her defense during Thursday morning’s broadcast.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade was highly critical of Jean-Pierre – who gave her first official White House press briefing on Monday after taking over the role vacated by Jen Psaki — and Earhardt argued that she should be allowed some time to get used to the job.
Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt defends White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre from co-host’s brutal attack on her: “Maybe just give her a chance”. pic.twitter.com/gu52vlKOsu
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) May 19, 2022
Kilmeade argued that Jean-Pierre appeared wholly unprepared for the job, pointing to the fact that she had spent much of the briefing looking through her notes and had at times even resorted to repeating White House talking points that did not address the questions she was attempting to answer.
“‘That’s what it says in my folder, so it must be true.’ She is off to an awful start. I mean, I cannot – I don’t know how she is going to keep that job. She didn’t know anything instinctively, was reading things off,” Kilmeade critiqued her performance thus far, comparing the way she was answering questions to someone in sales responding to any and all potential objections with the same boilerplate copy that was designed to push the sale.
“So you just sit there and you read off the board no matter what they said,” Kilmeade continued. “That’s what it was, it was like, okay, Putin’s Price Hike, let me go find that page. … You have to understand the issues in order to be able to answer the questions. It makes you think you can’t even use those soundbites for a news story.”
“It has to be a very nerve-wracking job though,” Earhardt pushed back.
“She’s not prepared for it,” Kilmeade replied.
Co-host Steve Doocy interjected then, noting that Psaki had often brought the same binder to the lectern with her and consulted it when necessary
But Kilmeade was quick to rebut Doocy as well, saying that Psaki had been “light-years” better “from day one.”
“Maybe just give her a chance. Maybe in a few weeks …” Earhardt tried again.
“I would not be surprised if she does not get any better,” Kilmeade said.