asmPolitics-498 [Jen Psaki, TJ Ducklo]

 https://nypost.com/2021/02/12/jen-psaki-stumbles-when-grilled-over-tj-ducklos-suspension/

Psaki stumbles over Ducklo drama after Biden vowed to ‘fire’ aides for harassment

By Lia Eustachewich

February 12, 2021 | 2:56pm | Updated

White House press secretary Jen Psaki waffled Friday when grilled on TJ Ducklo’s one-week suspension for threatening a journalist — even though President Biden has vowed to fire his aides “on the spot” for harassment.

Psaki said the remarks from Ducklo — who threatened to “destroy” Politico reporter Tara Palmeri for reporting about his personal relationship — were “completely unacceptable” but refused to address why he wasn’t outright fired.

“We felt it was a serious punishment,” Psaki told reporters at a White House press briefing.

Biden’s zero-tolerance promise came as he swore in his appointees on Inauguration Day.

“I am not joking when I say this, if you are ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect … talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” he said at the time. “On the spot. No ifs, ands or buts. Everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity. That’s been missing in a big way the last four years.”

Ducklo was suspended without pay for a week over his tirade to Palmeri, to whom he’s also apologized. When he returns, he will no longer be assigned to work with Politico reporters.

Psaki dodged a question about Biden’s remarks on Jan. 20, saying Ducklo’s punishment fits the crime.

“It doesn’t meet our standard, it doesn’t meet the president’s standard,” she said. “It was important that we took a step to make that clear and that included not just an apology directly from him and apologies directly from us at the highest levels there, but also a step to suspend him for one week without pay. That, in our view, was an important step to send the message that we don’t find it acceptable.”

Psaki also said she did not discuss Ducklo’s conduct or punishment with Biden.

FILED UNDER JEN PSAKI ,  JOE BIDEN ,  SEXISM ,  WHITE HOUSE ,  2/12/21

asmPolitics-497 [Biden, Israel, Saudi Arabia]

 https://nypost.com/2021/02/12/jen-psaki-cant-say-if-israel-and-saudi-arabia-are-important-allies/

Jen Psaki can’t answer whether Israel and Saudi Arabia are ‘important allies’

By Laura Italiano

February 12, 2021 | 10:39pm | Updated

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki gave a vague, rambling answer Friday when asked at a briefing to reporters whether the Biden administration considers Saudi Arabia and Israel to be “important allies.”

“Can you please just give us a broad sense of what the administration is trying to achieve in the Middle East?” a reporter asked — in follow-up to an earlier question asking why President Biden has yet to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“For example,” the reporter asked, “does the administration still consider the Saudis and the Israelis important allies?

Rather than saying simply, “Yes,” Psaki gave this answer, according to a White House transcript of the late-afternoon briefing.

“Well, you know, again, I think we — there are ongoing processes and internal interagency processes — one that we, I think, confirmed an interagency meeting just last week — to discuss a range of issues in the Middle East. 

“We’re — we’ve only been here three and a half weeks, and I think I’m going to let those policy processes see themselves through before we give, kind of, a complete laydown of what our national security approaches will be to a range of issues,” she added.

Earlier in the press briefing, in insisting that Biden’s failure to call Netanyahu is “not an intentional diss,” Psaki said, “Obviously, we have a long and important relationship with Israel, and the president has known him and has been working on a range of issues that there’s a mutual commitment to for some time.

“It is just a reflection of the fact that we have been here three and a half weeks, he’s not called every single global leader yet, and he is eager to do that in the weeks ahead.”

A reporter followed up: “But he has called every other major ally in Europe and Asia,” to which Psaki answered, ‘He’s called many of them.”

“That is true,” she continued, adding, vaguely, “Some would argue they haven’t received calls yet, and they are still eager to receive them.”

“But I can assure you he will be speaking with the prime minister soon, and he’s looking forward to doing that.”

She declined to indicate when the call would happen, even to say if it would be a matter of days or weeks.

“They’ve known each other for some time,” she said. “There are certainly areas of mutual interest.”

“And as soon as he makes that call, we will let you all know.”

Psaki was also non-committal when asked more than a week prior about the lack of call to Netanyahu.

“We have a long and abiding relationship with Israel, an important security relationship, I’m sure they’ll discuss that and a range of issues when they do connect,” she said.

FILED UNDER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ,  ISRAEL ,  JEN PSAKI ,  JOE BIDEN ,  MIDDLE EAST ,  SAUDI ARABIA ,  WHITE HOUSE ,  2/12/21

asmPolitics-496 [Biden, Pipeline, Green Jobs]

 https://nypost.com/2021/02/08/psaki-mocks-reporter-asking-about-keystone-pipeline-job-losses/

NEWS

Jen Psaki mocks reporter when asked about Keystone pipeline job losses

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday mocked a reporter who asked when workers on the canceled Keystone XL pipeline would get “green jobs” promised by President Biden.

It’s expected that up to 11,000 jobs will be lost following Biden’s day-one decision to immediately shut down construction of the pipeline that was supposed to carry oil from Canada to Texas — leaving South Dakotans reeling and 1,000 people immediately out of work.

“Where is it that they can go for their green job?” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Psaki at her Monday afternoon press briefing, referring to Biden’s promise to create good-paying union jobs in the green energy sector as his administration attempts to end the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels.

“That is something the administration has promised and there is now a gap so I’m just curious when that happens, when those people can count on that?” Doocy added.

“Well, I’d certainly welcome you to present your data of all the thousands and thousands of people who won’t be getting a green job,” Psaki snarked. “Maybe next time you’re here you can present that.”

“But you said they will be getting green jobs. I’m just asking when that happens?” Doocy responded, noting a report by the Laborers’ International Union of North America that found 1,000 union jobs on the Keystone project would “immediately vanish.”

Another 10,000 construction jobs expected to be created by the project have also been nixed by Biden’s decision.

A prominent union leader and Biden ally, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, lashed the decision in an Axios on HBO interview Sunday, saying Biden should have also announced where he would replace those lost jobs.

“I wish he hadn’t done that on the first day, because the Laborers International was right. It did and will cost us jobs in the process,” Trumka told Jonathan Swan.

“I wish he had paired that more carefully with the thing that he did second by saying, ‘Here’s where we’re creating jobs,'” he went on, saying he believed Biden knows his announcement was “a mistake.”

Trumka, a former coal miner, also signaled his skepticism at Biden’s plan to transition coal, gas and oil workers to clean energy jobs, saying he was subject to a similar failed policy.

“You know, when they laid off at the mines back in Pennsylvania, they told us they were going to train us to be computer programmers,” Trumka said.

“And I said, ‘Where are the computer programmer jobs at?’ ‘Uh, they’re in, uh, Oklahoma and they’re in Vegas and they’re here.’ And I said, ‘So, in other words, what we’re going to be is unemployed miners and unemployed computer programmers as well,'” he recounted.

But Psaki swatted away the criticism and made a vague promise that Biden would put a jobs plan forward in the coming weeks.

“He has every plan to share more details on that plan in the weeks ahead,” she said when asked how Biden would support workers left jobless by the decision.

Biden’s climate czar John Kerry was also condemned by Republicans last month as “out of touch” when he suggested that energy and coal workers impacted by climate change efforts could “go to work to make the solar panels.”

Last month, the Biden administration unveiled its $2 trillion Green New Deal-fueled environmental plan, which includes eliminating coal, oil and natural gas as electricity sources by 2035.

FILED UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE ,  JEN PSAKI ,  JOE BIDEN ,  KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE ,  2/8/21

By Ebony Bowden

February 8, 2021 | 2:02pm | Updated