White House press secretary Jen Psaki fended off numerous questions on Monday about why President Joe Biden hasn’t fired Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Eric Lander.
An internal White House investigation in January yielded evidence of systematic “bullying” carried out by Lander against 14 other administration officials, yet several of his victims found the White House’s disciplinary action lacking.
“It was conveyed through meetings with senior White House officials directly that his behavior was inappropriate, corrective action was needed, and we will monitor for compliance to that, to those actions that were required,” Psaki responded after being asked at Monday’s White House press briefing why Lander was still employed by the administration. “Again, I think you may have also seen or it was reported that he also sent a note to his staff conveying his commitment to abiding by that, and we certainly hope that that is the case.”
Despite multiple reporters conveying to Psaki that Biden’s treatment of Lander “doesn’t sound like a zero-tolerance policy,” she continued to defend the White House’s handling of the situation.
WHITE HOUSE SCIENCE ADVISER WAS ‘BULLYING’ OVER. A DOZEN STAFFERS, INVESTIGATION FINDS
“The president has crystal-clear expectations with all of us about how we are to treat our colleagues, treat people who work for us, and that is what he expects for people across the building,” Psaki continued. “Our objective is, of course, to prevent any of this behavior from happening again in the future. That’s the overarching objective.”
“Again, let me just reiterate: Nothing about his behavior is acceptable to anyone here at all. Quite the opposite. Let me be clear about that,” she said in closing. “There is now a process in place that was not in place at the time to evaluate and determine what the next steps should be taken, in the event that any behavior like this occurs, to prevent it from happening in the future.”
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You can watch Monday’s entire briefing below.
