'Where's Jackie?': Jean-Pierre Explains Biden's Call for the Late Rep. Walorski (September 28, 2022)

On the morning of September 28, 2022, President Biden opened the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. Thanking “bipartisan elected officials like Representative McGovern, Senator Braun, Senator Booker,” he went on: “Representative — Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? I didn’t think she was — she wasn’t going to be here — to help make this a reality” [2]. Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana had died in a car accident on August 3, along with two members of her staff; Biden had issued a statement that day praising her as co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus and thanking her for her “partnership as we plan for a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health” [3]. At the briefing later that day, reporters asked Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre what had happened. This video shows those exchanges. Quotes are from the official transcripts published by the American Presidency Project.

Key Moments

”She was of top of mind for the President”

“The President appeared to look around the room for an audience member, a member of Congress who passed away last month. He seemed to indicate she might be in the room. What happened there?” a reporter asked. Jean-Pierre said Biden “was naming the congressional champions on this issue and was acknowledging her incredible work. He had — he had already planned to welcome the congresswoman’s family to the White House on Friday. There will be a bill signing in her honor this coming Friday. So, of course, she was on his mind. She was of top of mind for the President” [1].

”Where’s Jackie? She must not be here.”

The reporter read back the president’s words: “He said, ‘Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? She must not be here.’” “No, I totally understand. I just — I just explained she was on top of mind,” Jean-Pierre said. “There’s a bill signing that’s going to happen in renaming a VA clinic in Indiana after the late congresswoman. He knows that he is going to see her family, and she was at top of mind” [1].

”Why was he looking for her?”

Later in the briefing another reporter returned to the subject. “If the late congresswoman was top of mind for the President and her family was expected to be here and that’s what he was thinking about, what — why was he looking for her? I’m not trying to be snarky here,” the reporter said. “I don’t understand the connection between what you’re saying and what he said there.” Jean-Pierre answered: “I think the American people out there who, you know, watch the briefing from time to time, maybe at this moment, will understand when someone is at top of mind.” She added: “I don’t think it’s all that unusual to have someone top of mind, especially as there’s a big event — two big events — today and also Friday” [1].

”A post office in her memory”

At the Friday briefing two days later, a reporter noted that the bill signing was not on the president’s public schedule and asked whether it had happened. Jean-Pierre said it was “a personal moment” and that Biden “is signing the bill naming a post office in her memory.” She said the guests included “the late representative’s husband, mother, brother, staff, and several bipartisan members of Congress — Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Representative Jim Baird, Representative Jim Banks” [6].

Fact Check

“He had already planned to welcome the congresswoman’s family to the White House on Friday.” Accurate. On the afternoon of September 30, in the Oval Office, Biden signed H.R. 8656 with Walorski’s husband, Dean Swihart, her mother, Martha Walorski, other family and former staff, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. James Baird and James Banks in attendance, according to the White House’s daily digest [4].
“Naming a post office in her memory.” Wrong. The law Biden signed “designates the clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Mishawaka, Indiana, as the Jackie Walorski VA Clinic” [5]. Jean-Pierre had described it correctly on Wednesday as “renaming a VA clinic in Indiana” [1].
“The President was naming the congressional champions on this issue.” Accurate as a description of the passage: Biden called for Walorski while thanking the bipartisan lawmakers who had helped bring about the conference [2], and he had credited her partnership on it in August [3].
“She must not be here.” The reporter’s paraphrase. The official transcript records Biden as saying: “I didn’t think she was — she wasn’t going to be here — to help make this a reality” [2].
Why he looked for her. Jean-Pierre’s explanation that Walorski was “top of mind” was her interpretation; the president did not address the moment himself in the transcripts we reviewed.

For other statements by Jean-Pierre that the record contradicted, see our article on her “$70 per gallon” mistake and other statements of hers that proved wrong.

Background: Walorski and the Conference

Walorski represented Indiana’s Second District for nine and a half years and served on the House Ways and Means Committee. “We may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties,” Biden said in his August statement, which also named the two staff members who died with her, Zachery Potts and Emma Thomson [3]. The conference she had helped plan was convened, Biden said in his remarks, because “advances in research and medicine have taught us so much more about nutrition and health” since the original White House conference on the subject [2].