(28 Sep 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
US NETWORK POOL
Washington, DC - 28 September 2022
1. Mid, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre walks into briefing room
2. Wide, US President Joe Biden walks on stage
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Biden, U.S. President:
"I want to thank all of you here including bipartisan elected officials like representatives, governors ... (Indiana) Senator (Mike) Braun, (New Jersey) Senator (Cory) Booker, Representative Jackie (Walorski). Jackie are you here? Where is Jackie. I think she must not be here ... to help make this a reality."
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Reporter asking question
"At a hunger event today, the president appeared to look around the room for an audience member, a member of Congress who passed away last month. He seemed to indicate she might be in the room?"
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary:
"So. So. So the president was, as you all know, you guys were watching today's event, a very important event on food insecurity. The president was naming the congressional champions on this issue and was acknowledging her incredible work. He had. He had already planned to welcome the congresswoman's family to the White House on Friday. There will be a bill signing in her honor this coming Friday. So, of course, she was on his mind. She was of top of mind for the president."
++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY WHITE FLASHES++
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary:
"(Reporter off camera: He said 'Jackie are you here, where's Jackie? She must not be here?)
And I totally understand. I just I just explained she was on top of mind. You know."
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Reporter asking question:
"Because I'm trying to get my head around the response. If the late congresswoman was top of mind for the president and her family was expected to be here. And that's what he was thinking about. Why was he looking for her and I'm not trying to be snarky here?"
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary:
"No. I mean and I'm .... And again, I think people can understand I think the American people out there who, you know, watch the briefing from time to time, maybe at this moment will understand when someone is at top of mind."
8. Wide briefing
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Reporter asking question:
"Karine, I have John Lennon, top of mind just about every day, but I'm not looking around for him anywhere?."
(Karine Jean-Pierre, off camera: When you sign a bill for John Lennon, Lennon as a president, then we can have this conversation. Okay, go ahead."
STORYLINE:
President Joe Biden sought out deceased Rep. Jackie Walorski on Wednesday during remarks at a hunger conference, saying "Where's Jackie?" The White House press secretary later said the congresswoman had been "top of mind" for the president at the time.  
Karine Jean-Pierre did not acknowledge that Biden had misspoken during his remarks at the White House conference on hunger, nutrition and health when he looked around the room for Walorski, the Indiana congresswoman who died in an August car crash.
Biden, in his remarks. praised bipartisan lawmakers who worked on addressing childhood hunger, including Rep. Jim McGovern, Sen. Mike Braun, Sen. Cory Booker and Walorski, who was seen as a leader on the issue before her death.

"Representative Jackie, are you here? Where's Jackie? I think she wasn't going to be here to help make this a reality," Biden said.

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