White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked Tuesday if President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ post-election lunch at the White House was ‘awkward.’
Harris returned to the White House complex Tuesday for the first time since her bruising election loss a week ago to former President Donald Trump.
Aides stood on the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s steps to catch a glimpse of the now former Democratic nominee, who told them to keep the faith before she walked over for her lunch with Biden.
‘I don’t even understand. Why would it be awkward? Why would it be awkward?’ Jean-Pierre replied to Fox News’ Peter Doocy. ‘Why would you characterize it as awkward? They have regular lunches. They meet and talk regularly.’
Jean-Pierre then pointed to Biden and Harris’ joint appearance Monday to mark Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery.
‘Did you see the show of force together?’ she asked.
While she said she didn’t want to address the ‘premise of this question’ she said Biden and Harris ‘had lunch today.’
‘They’ve had lunch many times,’ she added. ‘They had an opportunity to discuss the last 70 days or so of this administration, how important it is to get things done for the American people, and that is their focus. That is genuinely their focus.’
On Monday, Harris looked somber as she walked alongside the 81-year-old president to a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
But it was first lady Dr. Jill Biden’s stone-faced expression as she sat next to Harris that prompted all sorts of online chatter.
While there had been some bad blood between the two women after Biden’s first debate appearance alongside Harris in Miami in June 2019 – Dr. Biden officially campaigned for Harris in run-up to last Tuesday’s election.
As for the president, he was largely sidelined by the end of the campaign cycle due to accidentally calling Trump supporters ‘garbage.’
The White House pushed that he was referring to a Trump-aligned comedian as ‘garbage’ after the comic, Tony Hinchcliffe, insulted the entire island of Puerto Rico at the Republican’s Madison Square Garden rally.
There was even a battle between the Biden press shop and the White House stenographers office after Biden’s press aides changed the punctuation in a transcript to suggest Biden was only calling one Trump supporter – the comedian – ‘garbage,’ as opposed to every Trump supporter.
The now president-elect compared it to how Hillary Clinton called his MAGA movement faithful ‘deplorables’ ahead of her 2016 loss to him.
Eight years later, Democrats are licking their wounds again.
Trump is headed to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday for meetings on Capitol Hill and then the White House for the traditional meeting between the current president and the president-elect.