President-elect Joe Biden’s White House press secretary pick Jen Psaki said incoming White House deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon’s controversial statement that Republicans are “f—ers” needed “full context” and her comments were about “working together.”
“I know everyone is busy around this holiday season, but I encourage everybody to read the full context of her interview, and what she really talked about through the course of the interview was the importance of working together, that compromise is essential, that we need to listen to one another. Of course, I’m sure her mother didn’t like the word she used, but that’s a sentiment that the president-elect has sent to all of us, and we’re expected to work toward that goal,” Psaki said on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.
“I don’t think we are naive, Chris, about how hard it may be at times,” she continued. “There is disagreement in Washington, we all know that. We’ve all been around this town for some time, but we’re hopeful that because of the crises we’re facing, from the pandemic to millions of people out of work, that we’ll be able to make progress.”
Psaki’s response came after O’Malley Dillon spoke with Glamour Magazine and defended Biden’s push for “unity.”
“In the primary, people would mock him, like, ‘You think you can work with Republicans?’ I’m not saying they’re not a bunch of f—ers. Mitch McConnell is terrible. But this sense that you couldn’t wish for that, you couldn’t wish for this bipartisan ideal? He rejected that,” she said.
“From the start to finish, he set out with this idea that unity was possible, that together we are stronger, that we, as a country, need healing, and our politics needs that too,” she added.
O’Malley Dillon was slammed for the comments as evidence the Biden administration isn’t planning on working with Republicans.
“Part of the theme of the Biden campaign is that they are saving the soul of the nation. And what are they saving it from? From Republicans, from conservatives, from Trump,” commentator Tammy Bruce said earlier this month.
“So there you are implying that everyone you say you want to unify with has destroyed the soul of the nation. This is unacceptable to Americans in general,” said Bruce.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Twitter: “Biden Campaign Manager called us ‘F***ers’ !!! She can try to walk back, but this says volumes about her boss who calls for ‘unity’ while shouting that we are ‘assaulting democracy:’ They think we are deplorable, irredeemable “F***ers”. SICK!!”
Biden Campaign Manager called us “F***ers” !!!
She can try to walk back, but this says volumes about her boss who calls for “unity” while shouting that we are “assaulting democracy:”
They think we are deplorable, irredeemable “F***ers”. SICK‼️ https://t.co/J9sNvrlSNa
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) December 17, 2020
O’Malley Dillon later walked back the comments, saying, “the point that I was really making is an incredibly important point. And that really is about the president-elect and why he was supported by over 81 million people, and what they were looking for.”
“I used some words that I probably could have chosen better,” she said.
