President Joe Biden was thinking about the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) before he meets with her family this week when he mistakenly asked whether she was at the White House’s Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
Biden was naming food security “congressional champions” and “acknowledging her incredible work” when he made the mistake, according to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
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“She was on his mind, she was top of mind for the president,” she told reporters Wednesday. “He looks very much forward to discussing her service with them when he sees her family this coming Friday.”
Jean-Pierre did not apologize to Walorski’s family, who lost the congresswoman in August in a car crash, only contending that “people can understand” and that Biden’s comments were not “at all unusual.” She also declined to provide a copy of Biden’s prepared remarks. He is expected to honor Walorski this week by signing a bill renaming an Indiana Veterans Affairs clinic in her memory.
During the Wednesday morning event, Biden was recognizing Walorski’s contributions, along with those of Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), as well as Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Mike Braun (R-IN).
“I want to thank all of you here, including bipartisan elected officials like Rep. McGovern, Sen. Braun, Sen. Booker, Rep. — Jackie, are you here?” he said Wednesday. “Where’s Jackie? I thought she was going to be here — to help make this a reality.”
Biden described being “shocked and saddened” by Walorski’s death in a statement last summer after the accident, which also killed two of her staff members.
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“We send our deepest condolences to her husband, Dean, to the families of her staff members, Zachery Potts and Emma Thomson, who lost their lives in public service, and to the people of Indiana’s 2nd District who lost a representative who was one of their own,” he wrote at the time.
