President Joe Biden got snappy Thursday after a reporter asked him about Russia threatening to invade Ukraine.
Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich shouted a question to Biden as reporters were leaving the South Court Auditorium where the president was meeting with his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, according to White House press pool reports.
“Why are you waiting on Putin to make the first move, sir?” Heinrich asked.
The president’s response, captured by audio engineers, was: “What a stupid question.”
REPORTER: “Why are you waiting on Putin to make the first move, sir?”
BIDEN: “What a stupid question.” pic.twitter.com/rcKxNePAR3
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 20, 2022
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Heinrich shared a tweet defending her from Brett Bruen, who, according to the Washington Post, served in former President Barack Obama’s White House as director of global engagement and is now a critic of Biden’s foreign policy.
President Obama’s Director of Global Engagement didn’t think it was a stupid question …. 🤷🏼♀️ https://t.co/lH6oBgrDWu
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) January 20, 2022
“It isn’t a stupid question. It’s a really important one. We continue to allow Putin to set the terms, timeline, & trajectory of this crisis. It’s time we stop being so reactive & start creating some of our own conditions,” Bruen said in the tweet.
RealClearPoltics’s Philip Wegmann, formerly of the Washington Examiner, noted, “Biden has been prickly lately.” During a rare press conference on Wednesday, Biden snapped at Wegmann after asking the president about his recent controversial speech on voting rights.
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The White House scrambled to clean up after Biden made a statement during the press conference suggesting a “minor incursion” by Russia into Ukraine would prompt a less serious U.S. response.
“President Biden has been clear with the Russian president: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that’s a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our allies,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki later said.
