In a heated exchange during a radio interview on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre abruptly ended the call after being asked if President Joe Biden, 81, suffers from dementia. The incident occurred during an interview with North Carolina radio host Mark Garrison, who posed the controversial question amidst concerns about the president's age and fitness for office.
"Does the president have dementia?" Garrison asked, to which Jean-Pierre responded, "I can't even believe you're asking me this question. That is an incredibly offensive question to ask." She accused the host of taking the conversation down a "rabbit hole" and sought to redirect the focus to President Biden's record and accomplishments.
"This is a president, if you watch him every day if you really pay attention to his record, what he has done, you will see exactly how focused he has been on the American people," Jean-Pierre asserted. She emphasized that the president's physician has comprehensively detailed his health over the past several years, and that Biden's actions have been historic and impactful.
The interview continued with Garrison pressing Jean-Pierre on the issue of inflation and its potential consequences for the upcoming general election in November. "How does Mr. Biden win votes when people don't have as much disposable income?" he asked.
Jean-Pierre responded by highlighting the president's middle-class upbringing in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and his understanding of the challenges Americans face. "The president understands. He grew up in a middle-class family, working-class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He gets it," she said, adding that the country is "in a different place than we were a year ago on gas prices, on eggs, milk, and seafood products."
Shortly after these exchanges, Jean-Pierre abruptly ended the interview, saying, "Thank you so much, Mark, have an amazing, amazing day," before the call ended. Garrison, taken aback, remarked, "Wow, she hung up."
The White House later clarified that Jean-Pierre did not end the interview because of the dementia and inflation questions, but rather due to a series of back-to-back interviews with radio stations. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates explained, "As she often does when the President travels, Karine had multiple back-to-back interviews with radio stations who were each offered 7 minutes. Once the agreed-upon time was over, she called into the next interview so everyone could get their full time."
Bates also accused the radio station of editing the interview to make it appear as though Jean-Pierre ended the call more abruptly than she actually did. "This particular station chose not to air the full interview and instead artificially attached a sound effect that our phones do not make when calls end," he stated.
The incident unfolded during President Biden's visit to North Carolina on Tuesday as part of his 2024 re-election campaign. While a recent poll showed Biden gaining ground against former President Donald Trump in the race for the White House, the survey also revealed that Biden trailed Trump by 6% in North Carolina.
