On 3/22/2023, a reporter asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, “President Biden said several weeks ago that he plans to visit East Palestine. Can you update on — us on that? When is he going to be visiting East Palestine? And why hasn’t he yet?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, plans are underway, discussions are underway. Just don’t have anything locked in at this time. The President — the President’s words stand on — on what he shared about at some time going to visit the community …
Reporter: So you’re saying he still plans to visit. What’s your message to residents there, lawmakers there, including Democrats who say he should have been there already?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Look, the President has had his team on the ground since day one. I just laid out …
Reporter: And then I have another question. So, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has installed more than 130 miles of razor wire on federal land in the Rio — in the Rio Grande canal. Abbott didn’t seek the required permits to do this and has kind of — and doubled down on — yesterday on Twitter, saying that they are not going to ask permission to do this.
Does the administration plan to sue Texas, like they did in Arizona over former Governor Doug Ducey’s makeshift border barrier?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: That’s a question for the Department of Justice. I don’t have anything to share here.
But more broadly on — on the governor in Texas, these — this is another political stunt that we’ve seen from him over and over again. Inste- — instead of dealing with an issue in a way that can actually have results, he continues to have political — do these political stunts. And it’s unfortunate, because what it’s going to do is actually hurt the communities that he is supposed to represent.
And this is a President that has — when it comes to working to secure the border, dealing with a real issue, he’s taken actions … because of the record levels of funding. We support 23,000 agents, the most ever working to secure the border …
Reporter: The messaging from TikTok increasingly is focused on the number of users, now up to 150 million. The TikTok CEO is expected to stress that in his testimony tomorrow. Is the app now so popular that it’s too late for these national security concerns to be properly addressed?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, I’m just going to repeat what you heard from my colleague, and what I say all the time from here is: We’re just not going to comment any further on this app …
Reporter: Can I just ask one follow-up on that?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Sure. Absolutely.
Reporter: Is there any way you can shed some light on why the CFIUS review process has taken as long as it has? I mean, this is now — the former President tried to ban TikTok more than two years ago, and the app has only grown in popularity since. What’s taking so long?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So I can’t speak to their process. It is — they are doing this independent review …
Reporter: I just wanted to see if you could offer a little bit of clarity on the Afghanistan — remarks of the after-action review that’s coming out in mid-April that Kirby just referred to. Is that the hotwash that Jake had referred to, going back to, basically, in the midst — right? —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah.
Reporter: — in August 2021?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, I —
Reporter: Is that —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: That is —
Reporter: That’s what we should be —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: That — that’s what you should be expecting in mid-April.
Reporter: Okay. I guess, if you could just add a little bit of meat to the bone. Why — it’s — I guess, for — I’m not turning down this review coming out —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
Reporter: — but why did — why did it take so long?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Look, I’m not going to get into the specifics on — on the process or the timeline of it. I know that Jake had talked — you guys have asked him about this many times. And I — my — I would say that we wanted to make sure that we were — you know, take the time to get this right.
It is an important question that the American people are pr- — an important review that the American people need to know about. And we wanted to make sure that we got this right.
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47 Days After, When Biden Visit East Palestine? Working To Secure The Border. Why TikTok review so long?