Q: Biden shutdown or help coal plants stay open? A: GOPs are the ones don’t want to help

A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, “You said that the President is fighting for coal communities. But just a follow-up: That doesn’t mean that he’s fighting to keep these coalmines open, does it?”

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Look, the President — I — I laid out very clearly about how the President sees — sees his — his part in this and what he has done. You know, he has — he has — you know, through the work of Work … you know, I mentioned this, I just laid this out: While we’re trying to help coal communities, while we’re trying to do everything that we can to make sure that they have the funding that they need, Republicans — that very same — same policy, same monies that I just laid out — Inflation Reduction Act, which is that where it’s coming from — Republicans want to repeal that, taking away the efforts that we’re trying to provide for coal communities.

Reporter: So that sounds like you’re helping them as the market, through economic transition, is moving away from coal. That doesn’t sound like you’re taking any deregulatory efforts or any steps to help the mines themselves stay open. Is that correct?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Look, I’ve been very clear. The President has been very clear on this. I don’t have anything more to add. Again, we believe what he was trying to say was twisted. And we’ve laid that down very clearly. You heard from my statement. You heard from what I just say — said here today.

Reporter: How can you twist those words? He said “We’re shutting those plants down.” How do you twist those words?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead, Phil.

On 11/7/2022, A CBS reporter asked Karine Jean-Pierre about her attempt at damage control after Joe Biden promised to shut down coal plants. Biden celebrated coal plant workers losing their jobs, “No one is building new coal plants because they can’t rely on it,” Biden said on Friday in north San Diego county. “Even if they have all the coal guaranteed for the rest of the existence of the plant. “So it’s going to become a wind generation,” Biden added. “And all they’re doing is, it’s going to save them a hell of a lot of money and using the same transmission line that they transmitted the coal-fired electric on. We’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar power.”

Karine Jean-Pierre over the weekend scrambled to clean up on aisle Biden after major backlash. “The President’s remarks yesterday have been twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended; he regrets it if anyone hearing these remarks took offense. The President was commenting on a fact of economics and technology: as it has been from its earliest days as an energy superpower, America is once again in the midst of an energy transition,” Karine Jean-Pierre said.

longer version of this clip is here: https://youtu.be/8vjiMLbOEL0

Q: Biden shutdown or help coal plants stay open? A: GOPs are the ones don’t want to help

Transcript Highlights

Transcribed from the video audio:

• We don’t know if you get a very lengthy Saturday statement from you clarifying the President’s remarks from the day prior
• Can you walk through what the genesis of that was and whether or not you guys thought that perhaps it would be politically problematic had those statements been allowed to stand
• So we just wanted to be, you’re talking about the the, so we just wanted to be very clear on that, which is why we put out a statement
• It seemed like there was some confusion on that
• And so, but you know, I want to say this, it was some of you were there
• It was loud and hard to hear, I think, or maybe not exactly what was being said, but I currently don’t want to get into punditry from here and why we did it or paid or did it on TV
• But I spoke to this over the weekend, the President’s words, we believe were twisted, and we were very clear about that
• And the reason why we put out that statement to you, you asked me about the genesis, we believe his words were twisted and we just wanted to make sure there was some clarity
• I was in Massachusetts about a month ago on the side of the largest old coal plant in America
• It cost them too much money, they can’t count, no one’s building new coal plants because they can’t rely on it