{"id":1644325,"date":"2022-09-16T20:34:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-17T00:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1644325"},"modified":"2022-09-16T20:35:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-17T00:35:06","slug":"awkward-white-house-reporter-asks-john-kirby-whether-he-is-second-press-secretary-there-to-undermine-jean-pierre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/awkward-white-house-reporter-asks-john-kirby-whether-he-is-second-press-secretary-there-to-undermine-jean-pierre\/","title":{"rendered":"Awkward: White House Reporter Asks John Kirby Whether He Is \u2018Second Press Secretary,\u2019 There To \u2018Undermine\u2019 Jean-Pierre"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fawkward-white-house-reporter-asks-john-kirby-whether-he-is-second-press-secretary-there-to-undermine-jean-pierre%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1644325&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had a tense exchange with a reporter who said some are accusing Kirby of trying to \u201cundermine\u201d White House Press Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/karine-jean-pierre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Karine Jean-Pierre<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During the White House\u2019s daily press briefing Friday, Today News Africa White House reporter Simon Ateba asked Kirby to clarify \u201cconfusion\u201d he encountered when talking to everyday people who claimed that Kirby acts like the \u201csecond press secretary\u201d and is trying to undermine the first black press secretary. Kirby said it was \u201cregrettable\u201d that anyone would get such an idea and stressed that he is solely focused on national security issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn your job at the White House \u2014 because I\u2019ve been asked this question \u2014 there seems to be some confusion about what your role is, what type of questions [we should] ask you, sometimes you act like the second press secretary,\u201d Ateba said, prompting Kirby to shake his head no.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan you explain exactly what your job is at the White House and if you\u2019re the second press secretary? What type of questions should we ask you? Is it on \u2026 national security? And the reason I\u2019m asking is because almost everywhere I go, I have black people telling me that the reason you\u2019re at the White House is to undermine the first female black press secretary, so can you clarify that and explain why the \u2026 national security experts at the NSC who can always be here and take questions on National Security, so what type of questions should we ask you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirby was visibly taken aback by the question. \u201cIf anyone gets any kind of idea in their head that I\u2019m taking away from Karine or her work, that\u2019s really regrettable,\u201d he replied. \u201cAnd I\u2019m very sorry that that\u2019s any impression that anybody would have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am simply working at the National Security Council on national security communications \u2014 and with her good graces, I\u2019m able to come up here every now and then to talk to you about simply national security issues,\u201d he continued. \u201cThat\u2019s my portfolio. That\u2019s where I\u2019m limited. That\u2019s where I\u2019ll stay. And I do it at her invitation and with her approval to come up here. So that\u2019s the focus. I\u2019m happy to answer national security questions and that\u2019s about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Reporter asks John Kirby about his role at the White House: &#8220;Sometimes you act like a second press secretary\u2026almost everywhere I go, I have Black people telling me that the the reason you&#8217;re at the White House is to undermine the first female Black press secretary?&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7ewUSkWbdr\">pic.twitter.com\/7ewUSkWbdr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CSPAN (@cspan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cspan\/status\/1570836894807691266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 16, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A retired rear admiral in the Navy, Kirby served as the Pentagon press secretary from January 2021 until May 2022, when he joined the White House as the National Security Council\u2019s Coordinator for Strategic Communications. He previously served as Pentagon spokesman during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n<p>Kirby was rumored to be a favorite to replace former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki before Jean-Pierre was tapped to assume the position. Still, Kirby quickly began appearing alongside Jean-Pierre in press briefings to answer national security questions. Ateba\u2019s question gave voice to an observation made in private by other members of the press corps, the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/09\/16\/john-kirby-denies-undermining-karine-jean-pierre-as-press-secretary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York Post<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>Ateba also has a history of creating uncomfortable moments during White House briefings. He <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/05\/13\/jen-psakis-final-briefing-is-chaos-simon-ateba-heckles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">heckled<\/a> Psaki to take a question from him during her final White House briefing. Last month, he similarly shouted over other reporters trying to have a question answered until Kirby <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/john-kirby-reprimands-reporter-for-shouting-over-others-in-briefing-room-you-know-where-we-are\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reprimanded<\/a> him. \u201cThis is the White House press briefing room, and you need to be more respectful,\u201d Kirby scolded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had a tense exchange with a reporter who said some are accusing Kirby of trying to \u201cundermine\u201d White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. During the White House\u2019s daily press briefing Friday, Today News Africa White House reporter Simon Ateba asked Kirby to clarify \u201cconfusion\u201d he encountered when talking to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1576098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1644325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1644325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1576098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1644325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1644325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1644325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}