While media observers, Twitter, and cable news viewers were lighting their hair on fire Monday over the monumental shakeup with CNN firing Don Lemon and Fox News axing Tucker Carlson, the Biden White House held its near-daily press briefing and there were a few moments that slipped under the radar, including one about Hunter Biden.
The New York Post’s Steven Nelson took advantage of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan serving as Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s crutch for the day and asked about an April 11 revelation from a former Obama-Biden official that alleged Sullivan — then a top Biden aide — called for support to the Ukrainian gas industry just after Hunter Biden signed on with Burisma.
“I wanted to give you the opportunity to respond to a former White House stenographer who this month outed you as a anonymous senior administration official who briefed reporters on Air Force Two en route to Ukraine in 2014,” Nelson began, adding this person alleged Sullivan “spoke about giving aid to the Ukrainian national gas industry just days after” Hunter “had secretly joined the board of” Burisma.
Nelson continued:
He says he considers you part of a corrupt influence-peddl — peddling conspiracy. He wants to testify to a Delaware grand jury about it. Do you have a response to that? And were you part of a corrupt influence-peddling operation involving Biden family in Ukraine or any other country?
Like a good Biden lackey, Sullivan denied it, simply replying, “no.”
Earlier on, CBS’s Ed O’Keefe had this stinging question about the unrest in Sudan and how the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy marked another diplomatic installation abandoned on Biden’s watch:
You say the U.S. has temporarily pulled out of Sudan and will return when it’s safe to do so. Who is responsible for the safety or the security the U.S. embassy right now? I’m curious if you’d respond to the charges over the weekend that, in essence, the Biden administration now has lost two U.S. embassies during the President’s term[.]
Sullivan acted confused, saying he wasn’t “sure what you mean by a charge about ‘losing embassies’” as, along with the fact that “the entire United Nations community in Khartoum” did the same, losing embassies “happens from time to time and if you look back over the course of months and years, you see military-assisted departures from embassies.”
“It happens from time to time”? Tell us how that wouldn’t be a news cycle if that were uttered by the national security adviser for a Republican president.
And over in softball territory, there was this embarrassment from Franco Ordoñez of taxpayer-funded National Public Radio that serve as an example as to why it needs to be defunded:
One of the early, kind of, themes of the — messages of the administration was foreign policy for the middle class. I was just — wanted to ask: Is that still a driving theme? And is it now harder to achieve, considering these increasing challenges around the world — what’s going on now in Sudan — pardon me — as well as Ukraine?
This placing of the ball on the tee gave Sullivan the chance to forcefully insist in part that he’s heard “some voices saying...we shouldn’t support Ukraine because we have to be focused at home and my answer to that is the same answer that Democratic and Republican Presidents have given over the course of decades, which is: We’re the United States of America. We can and must do both.”
To see the relevant transcript from the April 24 briefing, click “expand.”
White House press briefing [via ABC News Live]
April 24, 2023
1:33 p.m. EasternED O’KEEFE: You say the U.S. has temporarily pulled out of Sudan and will return when it’s safe to do so. Who is responsible for the safety or the security the U.S. embassy right now? I’m curious if you’d respond to the charges over the weekend that, in essence, the Biden administration now has lost two U.S. embassies during the President’s term and I’ve got another on Lavrov, if you don’t mind. Go ahead.
JAKE SULLIVAN: Well, so, first, what I would say about the — the question of security at the embassy compound outside Khartoum is that I don’t want to get into specifics on how it is that we are taking steps to ensure its continued security, only to say that we had a contingency plan in place. We are now executing that contingency plan. That can’t guarantee, obviously, the security of the embassy, but we believe that we have put steps in place to be able to protect that compound in the days and weeks ahead and that we do intend to resume operations as soon as we are capable of doing so. I’m not sure what you mean by a charge about “losing embassies.” The broader diplomatic community, including the entire United Nations community in Khartoum, has closed down in Sudan. Diplomatic personnel from allies and partners around the world are being evacuated and of course, the United States has evacuated its personnel. This happens from time to time and if you look back over the course of months and years, you see military-assisted departures from embassies. You see, in some cases, noncombatant evacuation operations. That’s in the nature of having 270 total diplomatic posts around the world. There will be times when the conditions are not conducive to sustaining operations in all 270 at the same time. But our goal, as I said before, is to be able to resume operations in Khartoum as soon as we are capable of doing so.
(....)
1:41 p.m. Eastern
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ: One of the early, kind of, themes of the — messages of the administration was foreign policy for the middle class. I was just — wanted to ask: Is that still a driving theme? And is it now harder to achieve, considering these increasing challenges around the world — what’s going on now in Sudan — pardon me — as well as Ukraine?
SULLIVAN: So, you know, I’ve heard some voices saying, for example, we shouldn’t support Ukraine because we have to be focused at home and my answer to that is the same answer that Democratic and Republican Presidents have given over the course of decades, which is: We’re the United States of America. We can and must do both. We can look after our people at home and make far-reaching investments in the middle class here for good-paying jobs for years and decades to come while also standing up for the values that we hold dear around the world, including the value of freedom and freedom for the people of Ukraine. We are capable of doing both and that’s not an abstract proposition. That is the last year, since the war broke out. In that time, we have not only mobilized an international coalition to resist Russian aggression and to protect Ukraine as a sovereign and independent country, we have also made historic investments in clean energy, in infrastructure, in technology, in the United States — investing in this country in ways that are going to make the middle class stronger, more vibrant, and bigger than it was when President Biden took office. So, from my perspective, the United States has significant obligations around the world, obligations that relate directly to our national security and to the well-being of working people here in this country. We will discharge those obligations. We will do that while at the same time putting in place the most significant set of investments in more than a generation in working people, middle-class people in the United States and so, I think the results speak for themselves. And the answer is yes, we still are committed to a foreign policy for the middle class.
(....)
1:48 p.m. Eastern
STEVEN NELSON: On Ukraine. Thank you — thank you, Jake. On Ukraine, I wanted to give you the opportunity to respond to a former White House stenographer who this month outed you as a anonymous senior administration official who briefed reporters on Air Force Two en route to Ukraine in 2014. He says that you spoke about giving aid to the Ukrainian national gas industry just days after the first — or the second son had secretly joined the board of a Ukrainian gas company. He says he considers you part of a corrupt influence-peddl — peddling conspiracy. He wants to testify to a Delaware grand jury about it. Do you have a response to that? And were you part of a corrupt influence-peddling operation involving Biden family in Ukraine or any other country?
SULLIVAN: No.
