WH Press Secretary: ‘We Understand We Hit a Nerve

By Melanie Arter | September 2, 2022 | 9:34am EDT

CNS News

(CNSNews.com) – President Biden “hit a nerve” when he called out “MAGA Republicans,” because they want to “dodge accountability for their extreme proposals and actions,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday prior to the president’s primetime political speech.

“Democrats and people on the left are pretty happy about the more aggressive tone they’re seeing from the president and from the White House, but you’re also facing some criticism, which has been brought up, that this aggressive tone is also stoking the divisiveness that he’s trying to heal. Any concerns about that?” Reuters White House Correspondent Jeff Mason asked.

JEAN-PIERRE: You know, the president is never going to shy away from calling out what he sees, and I said this yesterday, and I — and I’ll say this now. You know, I’m assuming the divisive tone is coming from — from whom?

MASON: From the right.

JEAN-PIERRE: From the right. So, look, we understand we hit a nerve. We get that. We understand that they’re trying to hide, and we understand that ultra MAGA officeholders want to play games here and dodge accountability for their extreme proposals and actions, but they’re just telling on themselves.

Look, the president has always, always squarely targeted his criticism on elected leaders. This is about what they’re doing in Congress — those extreme MAGA Republicans, those who are — who hold office. The first time that the president said “ultra MAGA” was about Rick Scott’s radical plan to raise taxes on millions of middle-class Americans and put Medicare on the chopping blocks, put Social Security on the chalking block.

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