James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:36 P.M. EST
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Good afternoon, everybody. I know we have some serious business ahead of us today, but as you know, sometimes a girl just want to have fun. (Laughter.) I'm —
Q Ahhh —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Come on. Come on. Come one.
(Laughter.) Come on, I'm trying. I'm trying, guys.
But in all seriousness, this afternoon we are celebrating a truly historic moment for marriage equality. And so I brought a friend with me, who is an icon, really doesn't need any introduction, but we are thrilled that she is here. We are honored to have her here with us today on this important day. Cyndi Lauper, who has been advocating, as many of you know, for LGBTQI+ community for decades, particularly to end youth homelessness.
Cyndi will be performing this afternoon, and I thought I'd invite her to — in front of all of you all today, to say a few words.
And, Cyndi, thank you so much for coming. The podium is yours.
MS. LAUPER: Thank you.
Hi. I just — I just want to tell you, I came here because I wanted to just say thank you to President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, Vice President Harris, and all the advocates, and his team. For — for once, a lot of families — mine and a lot of my friends and people you know — sometimes your neighbors — we can rest easy tonight because our families are validated and because now we're allowed to love who we love, which sounds odd to say. But Americans can now love who we love.
And bless Joe Biden and all the people that worked on this for allowing people not to worry and their children not to worry about their future. Thank you.
And thank you for being supportive. And, hey, I will sing out to you. (Laughs.) Thank you very much.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Thank you, Cyndi. Thank you so much.
Okay, thank you so much, Cyndi, for coming. Again, this is an extremely historic day, a proud day for me and so many of us here at the White House and so many Americans just across the country.
And we've — truly will be looking forward to Cindy performing on the South Lawn today.
I know we don't have a lot of time, and so we'll go straight to questions.
Zeke.
Q Thanks, Karine. Obviously, the news that the former founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested in the Bahamas. The President received campaign donations — campaign donations from him — and many prominent Democrats did, some Republicans did as well. Will the President return that donation? Does he call on all politicians who got campaign donations that may have come from customer money to return those funds?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, I am covered here by the Hatch Act. I'm limited on what I can say. And anything that's connected to political contributions from here, I would have to refer you to the DNC.
Q I mean, I'm asking the President's opinion, though. You know, does he want those — people who —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: No, you asked me two questions. You asked me about will he return the donations, and then you asked me about his opinion. I'm answering the first part, which is: I'm covered by the Hatch Act from here. I am limited on what I can say. And I just can't talk to political contributions or anything related to that. I cannot speak about it from here.
Q And then, his opinion, though — if you —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I — I just — just cannot speak to this from here. Even his opinion, even his thoughts about the contributions, donations, I cannot speak from it — from — about that from here.
Q And then —
Q Are you covered by the Hatch Act?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I am covered by the Hatch Act, which I'm happy to say over and over again, because we believe in the rule of law here.
Q And just on a different topic. Next week, Title 42 is coming to an end. How is the administration preparing for that? And what more is the President prepared to do to stop people from crossing the border regularly into the United States, illegally in many cases?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, what we are doing to need to prepare — we are asking Congress, as you all know, for the resources. We've been coordinating with leaders across the Western Hemisphere. As you all know, we've reported on — of meetings that we've had and actions that we have taken.
We've got anti-smuggling operations with Me- — with Mexico, Guatemala up and running. And so that's been incredibly critical as well.
We're working to combat misinformation from mis- — from smugglers. And as we — as was the case before Title 42 and remained the case after it, individuals who attempt to cross the border unlawfully and don't have a legal basis to remain will be subject to removal. And we'll — and we'll certainly have more in the coming days.
But, look, you know, you've heard us say this before, and we put the question to Co- — to Congress: And what — what are they going to do here? What — Republicans are asking, you know, how are we going to secure the border. I've listed out on ways that we've tried and work — to work on that.
