On 2/28/2023, Pete Buttigieg Defends Using Taxpayer-Funded Private Jets Because He’s Using “A Government Aircraft” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made the comments during an interview on “CNN This Morning”
On 2/27/2023, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, “Following up on that, are there any plans for the administration to release an unclassified version of the Energy Department’s origins — COVID origin report? And if not, why is the administration choosing to keep that assessment classified?”
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, again, I’m going to just repeat my National Security Council colleague who said that he doesn’t …
Reporter: So does the administration first need to find a consensus before releasing some of these assessments? Or, you know, why not put out what — everything that you’ve found so far?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Well, I think it’s basically what we’ve been saying. There has been no consensus, so I think they’re working through that …
Reporter: To follow up on the child labor violations: First, is the crackdown in direct response to the investigative reporting that came out over the weekend?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, I just want to be very clear here … We also need Congress to act … And because of that funding shortfall, it prevented the department from hiring nearly 200 additional staffers to combat these violations. So, again, we’ve been working on this. This administration has been working on this for the past two years …
Reporter: So, apart from lack of money, lack of resources, is there any agency, anyone who should be held accountable for the failure of oversight that led to this situation in the first place? And who is being held accountable?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Look — so, here’s the thing: We’ve taken action to try and deal with a real issue — a really true issue that was exacerbated, let’s not forget, by the last administration …
Reporter: On the lab: With the Department of Energy having expertise on an oversight of laboratories, does that in and of itself suggests there is something particularly new in this intelligence that should give people a sense of greater credi- — credibility or insight because of the kind of expertise DOE has in this area?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, the National Labs. No, I understand the question because of the National Labs, which is why they were asked to look into it. I don’t want to — I’m not at liberty to confirm the reporting, so I’m not going to do that from here. What I can tell you is, again, there’s been no consensus on this …
Reporter: Is the administration, is the President satisfied with Secretary Becerra’s handling of this issue, given the push that he and others have made to more quickly re- — release children to sponsors, where they wind up in child labor situations?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, let me first say: Yes, he has full confidence in the Secretary of HHS. And I’m assuming you’re — you’re talking about the “assembly line” comment or —
Reporter: Mm-hmm.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, you know, I just want to be very clear. Of course, the President does not believe that — that processing migrants should be treated like an assembly line, and neither does Secretary Becerra. His — I would refer you to — HHS addressed that particular comment in the story. And I would refer you to what he was — what was said there. Look, … vetting — vetting families and sponsors that would take in these …
Reporter: And then, to just go back to the DOE assessment, since I didn’t get a swing at Kirby. Without asking specifically about that, but just more of the tempo and rhythm of things, I think the surprise was that it just kind of popped in the last 48 hours. This has been an all-of-government effort. It’s been across agencies. Can you give us a sense of how this is actually working in terms of, you know, what the timelines are? What kind of effort is going in on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month basis as to why this would happen now, why there would be an update now?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, I can’t speak to — again, and Kirby was — the Admiral was trying to be very clear here; he didn’t want to confirm the story or speak to the story … again, there’s not a consensus her … again, we’ve taken this very seriously. The President has. We need to get to the bottom of what occurred.
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Q: Biden Release “Unclassified” Report On Lab Leak? ANYONE Held Accountable For Migrant Exploitation? A: Blame Trump