No, White House Press Secretary Did Not Ignore Question About Hurricane Aid

The viral video is clipped. The full video of the briefing shows Karine Jean-Pierre answering Doocy's question.

A video of a press briefing at the US’ White House, which shows White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre taking questions from reporters is being shared on social media.

The claim: The 18-second clip is being shared to claim that when a reporter asked about Congress approving funds for Lebanon without meeting, but needing to meet before approving funds for people affected by hurricane Helene in North Carolina, the former ignored the question and walked off the stage.

At the time of writing this report, this post by X user ‘@_ROB_29’ had gathered over 21 lakh views.

(Archives of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

But…?: The viral video has been edited to make it appear as if the question was ignored.

• The full version of the press meeting on the White House’s official YouTube channel shows Jean-Pierre responding to Fox News reporter Peter Doocy’s question, telling him about the administration’s response.

How did we find out the truth?: We looked for the full video of the press briefing on the White House’s official YouTube channel.

• The briefing seen in the viral video was held on 7 October.

At the 46-minute mark, we saw the same reporter, identified as Fox News’ Peter Doocy, asking a question about funding.

• He talks about the Biden administration having enough money “to send to Lebanon without Congress coming back,” but having to convene to approve aid for North Carolina, which was recently hit by Hurricane Helene. “Do I have that right?” Doocy asks. 

• Immediately answering the question, Karine Jean-Pierre told Doocy that the president and vice-president had put “more than 200 million dollars” towards helping the survivors of the disaster.

“Before the hurricane hit, we pre-positioned more than 1,500 federal folks on the ground to help,” she told Doocy, adding that the administration had ensured that every state received their requested emergency declaration.

• She then goes on to say that despite this, “people want to do disinformation, misinformation, which is dangerous, because when folks on the ground hear that, they may not want to ask for the help that they need, that is there for them.”

• The last part of the viral video can be seen at the 49:41 timestamp, where Jean-Pierre concluded the briefing after responding to Doocy’s question.

Conclusion: An edited clip has gone viral with the false claim that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ignored Fox News reporter Peter Doocy’s question about the Biden administration.

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