Karine Jean-Pierre Reacts To Venezuela Election That Had Maduro Declared Winner Despite Questions

5 months ago

At a White House press briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the election in Venezuela.

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Transcript

00:00Colleen, how did you, what time did you get home last night?

00:031.45.

00:041.45, okay.

00:05Alright, let's do this.

00:06It's been a rough morning.

00:07Matt?

00:08I see Matt back there.

00:09So can you give us an update on where the U.S. stands on the Venezuela elections?

00:18In particular, I know the President is speaking with President Lula of Brazil later, but just

00:24wondering if there's any progress on how the U.S. is trying to decide what to do.

00:30So a couple of things.

00:31I believed right before I walked out, a statement from the National Security Council spokes

00:36went out, so I'll certainly refer you to that.

00:38But just to give you a little bit of what was in that statement, obviously the U.S.

00:43has been closely monitoring Venezuela's presidential election that took place on Sunday and the

00:48subsequent announcements by Venezuela's National Electoral Council.

00:51First, let me say that the U.S. applauds the Venezuelan people for their courage and commitment

00:57to democracy by participating in this election in the face of repression and adversity.

01:03So we continue to call on Venezuela's electoral authorities to release full, transparent,

01:08and detailed voting results, including by polling stations as well.

01:14This is especially critical given that there are clear signs that the election results

01:19announced by Venezuela's National Electoral Council do not reflect the will of the Venezuelan

01:25people, as it was expressed at the ballot box on July 28th.

01:31We are also reviewing other electoral data shared by civil society organizations and

01:36the reports of international election monitors.

01:39The United States stands on the side of the democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people,

01:45including supporting their right to express their views freely and without reprisal.

01:51So that is where we stand.

01:54And again, we're just going to not get ahead of that.

01:56But we've been very clear, very clear about the election results.

02:00Can you help us understand a little bit about what the president was talking about last night?

02:05He was asked when he'd go campaign for Vice President Harris, and he said, well, I did today.

02:10I was wondering if there was – was yesterday – was there a campaign element to yesterday?

02:16Was he sort of talking broadly?

02:18I just wondered if you could help us with that.

02:20As you know, the president gave a little – is this when he – when he came back at 1.15 a.m.?

02:26Okay.

02:271.15 a.m. on the South Lawn, the president took a couple of your colleagues' questions.

02:32I think he was – I did not ask him about that particular answer.

02:35My guess is he was speaking more broadly.

02:38Look, at the end of the day, I'm not going to speak for the campaign.

02:41I'm not going to speak to the president's campaigning schedule.

02:43That is something for the campaign to speak to.

02:45But they are partners in this administration.

02:48The president and the vice president, as you know, we announced SCOTUS reform at LBJ Library just yesterday in Austin.

02:58And that was an important moment.

03:00That was an important moment to talk about where we are today.

03:03And the president met the moment talking about how no one is above the law here

03:07and how important the rule of law – I just started the top of the briefing talking about how it's so important to have the freedom of the press, right,

03:15and how we've had our – this is the 500th briefing.

03:17It is also important for our democracy.

03:19And so obviously the president was – and the vice president were partners in making that announcement

03:26in the sense of how they were going to move forward, the three things that he laid out on what reform looks like for this administration.

03:34As it relates to the campaign, I don't have anything specific to share,

03:38but this is certainly the Biden-Harris administration,

03:43and everything that we have done the past three and a half years we want to continue to do moving forward

03:49and continue to work on behalf of the American people.

Karine Jean-Pierre Reacts To Venezuela Election That Had Maduro Declared Winner Despite Questions

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