James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:37 P.M. EST
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: There's, like, an apple box here. I'm not sure why. (Laughs.)
Q Shall we take it?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Someone — someone is trying to tell me something. (Laughter.)
(Box is removed from stage floor.)
With that, Happy New Year, everybody. Welcome back. Welcome to our first briefing of 2023. I hope everyone had a peaceful and just a restful holiday season.
Okay. With that, I have one quick thing at the top, and then we'll get going.
As we announced this past weekend, the President will travel to Covington, Kentucky, tomorrow, where he will deliver remarks on how his economic plan is rebuilding our infrastructure, creating good-paying jobs that don't require a four-year degree, and revitalizing communities that are too often left behind.
The President will be joined in Kentucky by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Sherrod Brown, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. Their visit will highlight the President's historic record of achieving bipartisan results for the American people.
We'll have additional information to share about the President's trip later today, so stay tuned. But lead- — but leaders across the administration will spend Wednesday highlighting the impact of the President's economic agenda and work to rebuild our nation's infrastructure.
Vice President Harris will visit Chicago. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will visit New London, Connecticut. And White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu will visit San Francisco.
With that, okay, Zeke, kick us off.
Q Thanks, Karine. Happy New Year.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Happy New Year.
Q I'm wondering if the President has been watching the action going on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue right now. And does he have a preferred candidate in that race? (Laughter.)
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: That's one way to put it. Look, as you know, the President served as a U.S. senator for 34 years, and he understands how this process works. He certainly will not insert himself in that process.
Look, we are looking forward to working with congressional colleagues — including Democrats, Republicans, and independents — this year and — and the new Congress, obviously, to continue to move the country forward for the American people, continuing to build on an economy that — that is working, that because of the President's policy — if you think about the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that I just spoke about and how that's bringing — that brought both sides together and really going to deliver on an important — an important item with the bridge for — for Kentuckians, but also in the region.
So, that's going to be our focus. We're certainly not going to insert ourselves in what's happening on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Q And just a couple of national security questions for you — foreign policy questions. Does the White House have any response to the Israeli National Security Minister's visit to the Temple Mount? Does it believe that was constructive?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yes. So this is the — the mosque that you're talking about by the national security advisor there. Look, so the United States stands firmly, and we've been very clear, for preservation of the status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem.
Any unilateral action that jeopardizes the status quo is unacceptable, and we will continue to be steadfast on that and be very clear on that.
Q And then, separately, does the White House have any response — there's some pretty sharp rhetoric coming out of Beijing today in response to the testing measures that the U.S. and other countries have put in place on Chinese travelers over the last week or so. Has the White House seen that, and is there any response to that?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, so, we've seen that. Look, I will not speak for China, but I'll be — but I'll say this: There's no cause for retaliation here just because countries around the world are taking prudent health measures to protect their citizens. That's what you're seeing from us and others.
This decision is based on public health and science. This is coming from our experts here. And other countries like Japan, like South Korea, the UK, France, India, Italy, Malaysia are also taking similar public steps here.
The World Health Organization is calling on China to release more data, which is vital to the identity — to identify any potential variants.
Again, there is no need for retaliation. This is something that all — all of us, other countries are doing to make sure that we are protecting our citizens here.
Go ahead, Mary.
Before you ask your question, I just wanted to offer my condolences and the administration's condolences to your loss. And it was — we were all very sad to hear about the passing of the executive producer of "This Week," of Dag [Dax]. And I got to meet him a couple of times. He was an incredibly kind and wonderful individual, very smart, and clearly passionate about his work, and served as a — such a mentor.
And so, we — you know, our hearts and prayers go out to the ABC News family, to his wife, and his very young children. And, again, our condolences.
Q Thank you very much for that. Thank you.
You mentioned that the President looks forward to working with Republicans, presumably once they get their leadership sorted out. Now that we do have a new Congress in place, though, what is the first order of business where the President does look to try and work with Republicans?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, I'm not going to get into specifics on what the policies or pieces of legislation is going to look like. We're going to wait for the new Congress to kind of settle in and get themselves — get themselves situated.
But what I will say is that the President has always been very clear — he's been clear when he was a President; he was clear when he was U.S. senat- — senator; he was clear on the campaign trail — that he is going to — he's willing to work with Republicans who are willing to continue to deliver for the American people.
And it's not just him. This is what the Americ- — American public said very loudly and clearly after the midterms. They want us to work on a common ground to deliver on — on the needs of — of what's important for them and to do it in the way that we're building the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, as the President has said many times. And he wants to make sure we reward hard work and playing — and people — and do this so that, you know, for people who are playing by the rules.
And so, this is very important. We want to make sure that we address national security concerns and keep the American people safe.
And so, you know, some of you may have seen the President and the First Lady on New Year's Eve. They were on — on your network. And you heard the President — which is something that he says all the time — he is — he's an optimistic person. He is very optimistic on what lies ahead and how we're going to move our country forward.
Q Does the President see this leadership fight and have any takeaways from it in terms of whether it may make it more difficult to work with Republicans in getting any of these things done?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: You know, I will say this: As you all know, we're going to go to Kentucky, as I just mentioned. We announced it a couple of days ago, clearly, that he's going to go there. It's going to be done in a bipartisan fashion — the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, the biggest infrastructure investment since 1950s.
You think about the most significant gun reform in almost 30 years. You think about major China competitive — competitiveness legislation that's already bringing more manufacturing jobs back to America and key — key help for veterans who were exposed to toxic chemicals in the line of duty.
Those are things that the President has been able — those are the historic pieces of legislation that the President has been able to do in a bipartisan fashion.
And let's not forget there were 200 pieces of legislation that was done in a bipartisan way in — just in the first two years of his administration.
So, again, he's optimistic. We're going to see that bipartisanship tomorrow in — in Kentucky when we're out in the region. And I think that's incredibly important.
Q Can I ask you one more thing, just to clear something up here? On Title 42 — so, the Court says the administration still has the power to discontinue the policy on its own if it so chooses.
I know you've said you're complying with the Court — you know, deferring to them. But is it your understanding that the administration has this authority or not?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, a way — I know we haven't really responded to this because we haven't had a briefing. So, look, I'll say this, just to kind of give a reaction here on the Supreme Court:
So, look, the Supreme Court's order keeps the current Title 42 policy in place while the Court reviews the matter in 2023.
We will, of course — the way that we see it — comply with the order and prepare for the Court's review. But at the same time, we're advancing our preparations, as I've mentioned, to manage the border in a secure, orderly, and humane way when Title 42 eventually lifts. And we'll continue expanding legal pathways for immigration.
Title 42, as you all know — you've heard us say this many times before — it's a public health measure, not an immigration enforcement measure, and it should not be extended indefinitely. That is our view. That is what you've heard us say as this process has moved forward.
To truly fix our broken immigration system, though, we need Congress to act. We saw the President, on his first day in office, put forth a comprehensive immigration policy — legislation — and that — he did that to show how important this was, how much of a priority this was for him.
The Supreme Court's order gives Republicans in Congress plenty of time, we believe, to move past political finger-porti- — pointing and — and join our Democratic colleagues to fix and to work to fix this problem and come forth — come forth with a comprehensive way to move forward.
Q But do you agree with the Court that you have that authority? Yes or no?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, the way — the way that I can speak to it from here — I'm not going to get into specifics — the way that we see it is, we're going to comply with what the Supreme Court justices ruled in its current — in its current form with Title 42.
Q Right. So I'm trying to understand: Is there a difference of legal opinion here?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Look, I — I'm just not going to get into — dive into the legal opinion here or legal — kind of, the legal back-and-forth on this or any of the nuance.
What I can say is we're going to comply with what the Supreme Court announced and their — they ordered just last week. But I'm not going get into the — any legal opinion.
Q But you can't say whether or not you think you have that authority or not?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I'm just not — I'm just not going speak about it from here. That's a DOJ's legal — is doing the legal components of this.
What I can say is we're going to comply with the Supreme Court order as it stands from last week.
Go ahead.
Q Thank you, Karine. Just first, quickly, on McCarthy again. I'm just curious if — you know, the President made this case on the campaign trail last year about how, you know, basically, a vote for House Republicans would mean handing over leadership to "MAGA extremism," in his words.
Do you feel like this is an illustration of that in some way? And do you think it'll make har- — make it harder for you to get deals done?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I mean, the way that we see it is that, look, if you think about the midterms and if you think what was being written about leading into — leading into the midterms last — just a couple of months ago, which was there was going to be a red wave — right? That's what we kept on hearing. And that didn't happen. Right?
What we saw was the American people said very loudly and clearly they wanted us to come together and work towards a common ground — right? — whether it's to deal with the economy, continue to build on the President's economic policy, whether it's our national security, whether it's protecting women's — women's healthcare. All of those things is what we heard from the American people — all protecting our democracy.
And so, the way we saw it — and it was historical, right? If you think about a Democratic president and what we saw from those midterm elections, we hadn't seen anything like that in 60 years from a Democratic president — the success from the midterms.
And it happened and it occurred because of this President's leadership, because of his messaging, because of what we led with — right? — because of all the policies that I just mentioned, including the bipartisan infrastructi- –infrastructure legislation — right? — including the American Rescue Plan, which was the first piece of legislation that this President signed to get our economy back on its feet.
And so, we see this very differently. We see that the American public has given us a charge to work together, to work in a bipartisan way to continue to build on what the President has been able to do the last two years.
Q And did you invite Kevin McCarthy to the January 6th commemoration that you're holding here on Friday?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I'll have more to say on what — on what — what we're going to be doing on January 6th. Just don't have anything to share at this time.
Q Okay. And then just one other topic. Do you have any reaction to the missile strike that killed several dozen Russian military personnel? And understand it was U.S. arms that were used in that missile strike. Any comment or concern about that?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So I don't have an assessment for you on this. I would — I would not want to speak for Ukraine about their own military operations.
Again, I just don't have an assessment to share at this time.
Q Okay. And has the President discussed it with Zelenskyy at all?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I don't have anything to read out for you at this time.
Go ahead.
Q The event tomorrow is an interesting contrast with what we're seeing on the House floor today. Was that intentional? Were you thinking through, you know, the President, the Senate Minority Leader, a bipartisan law the day after what I think everybody expected was going to be a —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: You know —
Q — rather chaotic day on the House floor?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: You know, Phil, it really speaks to what I had just kind of laid out for Trevor as we talk about the results of the midterm election and what the — the American people said very loudly and clearly: They want us to work together. They want us to work towards a common purpose that will deliver for them.
But I'll say — you know, I'll say this: Over — over the holidays, our team was consistently engaged with bipartisan congressional leadership — governors and local electeds — across the country to pull this trip together, from California to Kentucky and Ohio, to Illinois and also to Connecticut. And so this is important. And let's not forget this is a bipartisan piece of legislation — this infrastructure legislation — that was done many, many months ago.
And so this is what we're going to see — what you all are going to see tomorrow. Certainly, I'm not going to get ahead of the President. Is going — is going to focus on this bridge, which is a main artery in that region, that delivers for not just the people of Kentucky, but for that region as well.
And so the President will speak more about this. We'll — you'll hear also a little bit more from us later today on what that's going to look like.
But, again, I think it can highlight that we do big, profound things for the country when we work together. And I think that's an important message to send to the American people, especially after the results of the midterm election.
Q And then just one on foreign policy. Some officials brought some clarity to this last night, but just from the podium: The South Koreans were talking about kind of expanding efforts together in terms of deterrence, given what we've seen from North Korea. Can you kind of detail what exactly that may be or what President Yoon was talking about?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So I just want to be very clear — just to reiterate what the President said yesterday: We're not discussing joint nuclear exercises. The ROK is a non-nuclear weapons state. So just want to be very clear on what the President was saying. And it is very much how — how it stands.
But following their meeting in Cambodia, President Biden and President Yoon tasked their teams to plan for an effective, a coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea. And so that is what the teams are working on and what President Yoon was clearly referencing when he made his comments yesterday.
And I will point you to his statement. He also made that clear in his most recent statements.
So, the United States is fully committed to our alliance with the ROK and providing extended deterrence through the full range of U.S. defense capabilities.
Q Thanks, Karine.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Go ahead.
Q One quick follow-up on Phil, and then another. Did the President, over the holidays, reach out directly to Senator McConnell to invite him to the event tomorrow as a show of the bipartisanship that you guys say?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, as you know, we do not talk about or lay out private conversations with congressional — congressional leadership. What you —
Q Sometimes you do.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Well, sometimes we do. But —
Q When it's in your interests, you do. (Laughter.)
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Well, you know —
Q Sorry, I —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: All right, you may have caught me there a little bit. (Laughter.)
But, look, I'm just not — I'm not going to — you're going to see them tomorrow. You'll be able to see for yourself that relationship that — that has been — you know, they've known each other for some time now.
But, look, again, I'm not going to get into private conversation between the President and members of Congress. But what I can say and share with all of you is that our team was consistently engaged with bipartisan leadership, as I just mentioned, not just in Congress, but also with governors and local leaders.
And this is an important issue, right? Again, let's not forget what the American people said very loudly: They want us to continue to build on policies like the President is going to talk about tomorrow: this bipartisan infrastructure legislation.
And, you know, want to be very serious here. When you think about infrastructure, it is connecting communities. And that's what one — that — that is one of the vital things that we will see tomorrow when we are at the bridge.
Q And then, one just real quickly about the next trip — the Mexico City trip. I imagine you guys are going to do some sort of briefing later. But do you have some — can you give us some sense of, you know, what the — what the agenda is? Obviously, trade. But immigration, Title 42? What's the — what's the message?
And I admit I didn't — I didn't — I don't have the details, but apparently there was some reporting this morning that AMLO had sent a letter or some sort of communication to the U.S. this morning detailing what he wants to be on the agenda. So —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, as you stated, we'll have more details on the trip, including deliverables, in the upcoming days.
I'll say a little bit of what we've already shared. As you know, we're going to go on the 9th and the 10th. The President is going to be traveling to Mexico City for the North American Leaders' Summit alongside President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico and President Minister — Prime Minister — pardon me — Justin Trudeau of Canada.
The NALS will be an opportunity for President Biden, Prime Minister Trudeau, and the President of Mexico to promote a common vision for North America with concrete initiatives that will address climate and environmental challenges; increase North America's competitiveness; protect the health and safety of our citizens; jointly respond to irregular migration in the region; and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion as well.
We will, as you — as you noted, as we get closer to — closer to the trip, we'll certainly have more to share with all of you.
Go ahead.
Q Yeah, a quick one. Were Senators Rand Paul or JD Vance invited to the event tomorrow?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I don't have anything to share on who — who was invited or not invited, but I can tell you who will be there tomorrow.
Q Okay. And the President —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I would point you to their — their offices.
Q Sure.
And the President had said that he was going to spend this lovely holiday season talking to his family. (Laughter.) Has he decided whether or not to run for reelection? And when will he tell us?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Oh, goodness.
Q Now would be fine. (Laughter.)
Q You can tell us now.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, look, as you know, I have to follow the law, in terms of what I can discuss here. We do believe in the rule of law. I know some of you had something to say about that just a couple of weeks ago, but we do believe in the rule of law, and we will respect it. And we will honor that here from this administration.
So, look, you've heard the President say this directly after the most successful first midterms for a Democratic President, as I just stated, in 60 years, especially as we heard very loudly from the American people and the message that they sent. And, look, you know, he has said that he intends to run. And I'm certainly not going to get ahead of the President.
What I can say is that his focus will continue to be and has always been on the American people. It is going to continue to be and has — and has always been on what we can do to improve their lives. It will continue to be and has always been: How do we build on his economic policy? How do we build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out? And how do we continue to cut tax — cut costs when we think about healthcare, when you think about the Inflation Reduction Act, when you think about the CHIPS Act and making sure that we're bringing manufacturing jobs back here to the — to the U.S., which we're seeing manufacturers doing? So, that's going to be his focus.
Again, I'm just going to reiterate what I said, I'm going to reiterate what the President said: He intends to run. And certainly, as I know from my job, I'm not going to get ahead of any announcement.
Q Just a tiny holiday catch-up — or maybe not tiny at all, because it was a giant meltdown. Does the administration have any thoughts about the Southwest Airlines meltdown? Are you guys satisfied with the performance of the airline? And what is the administration going to do to make sure that passengers are made whole?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Yeah, I have a couple of things to say on that. I think that's a really good question.
Look, Southwest Airlines failed its customers — point blank. The Department of Transportation will hold them accountable to their commitments to make their customers whole.
While every major airlines face challenges from a pre-Christmas storm that wrecked — that wreaked havoc on the aviation system, all major airlines except for one — which is Southwest, clearly — were able to recover quickly.
So Southwest Airlines acknowledged that all cancellations starting December 24th were "controllable." In other words, not weather related. So that means the airlines assumes responsibility.
Based on Southwest's prior commitments to const- — customers, the airline must cover rebooking, hotel rooms, meals, and transportation to and from a hotel.
What's more, Southwest must make their customers whole by paying for coach flights, rental cars, and trains to get people to their final destinations. And Southwest must return baggage as quickly as possible and reimburse passengers up to $3,800 in pro- — provable damage under Southwest care.
The Transportation Department is watching. They're monitoring this very, very closely to ensure that this all happens and will seek fines from Southwest if it doesn't cover a cost.
Go ahead.
Q Thank you, Karine. Happy New Year.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Happy New Year.
