Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Gaggle Aboard Air Force One En Route to Queens, NY 6/29/23 Transcript

All right. I got ahead of myself. All right, guys. We’re headed to New York City, my home, city, and state, New York. All right. Here we go.

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Since his first days in office, the president has demonstrated his commitment to diversity, creating a government that looks like America, a commitment that extends to the highest levels of his cabinet and the highest court in the land. For months, the White House has been meeting with civil rights organizations, universities, and legal organizations to prepare for this decision, in the event that the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action. Stakeholders shared with us that they would need guidance on what this ruling would mean, and they would need it before the start of the admission cycle to avoid confusion.

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The White House led by the DPC, the Office of Public Engagement and Council’s Office, worked over the last few months with DOJ and Ed to develop a response plan. Throughout the process, the president was clear with his team that diversity was one of America’s greatest strengths, that we needed to make sure that this decision wouldn’t be a permanent step back for the country, and we would need a way forward to protect diversity and opportunity in America for everyone. The president met regularly with his team over the last month to gear up a response that encourages colleges and universities to recognize when a student has had to overcome systemic barriers and inequities and value that in the admissions process. This morning when the decision came down, the president was briefed by counsel, then convened a meeting with members of his senior staff closely working on this issue. The president directed his team to finalize our plan to support colleges and universities before the admission process starts. The White House has directed the Department of Ed to analyze what other practices and tools exist to help build more inclusive and diverse student bodies.

(02:00)
Also, another piece of significant news we want to highlight today, which is something that we announced, I believe yesterday. Last year, the VA moved 40,000 homeless veterans into permanent housing. Today the Biden-Harris administration is announcing a series of additional actions to prevent and reduce veteran homelessness. The administration will invest an unprecedented $3.1 billion to help communities across the country quickly rehouse people experiencing homelessness, including veterans. This will be the single largest investment in communities homelessness response system in history. We are also providing new legal services for veterans experiencing, or at risk for homelessness, and the funding programs to help veterans experiencing, or at risk of homelessness, find jobs and connect to work. President Biden believes that every veteran deserves a roof over their head. These announcements build upon historic actions the administration has already taken to reduce the number of veterans experiencing homelessness, which has fallen by 11% since 2020, and more than 55% since 2010.

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With that, Zeke, you want to kick us off?

Thanks, Karine. When will that Department of Ed guidance be promulgated? What assurances have you gotten from universities, or which universities have said that they will follow that guidance now that the Supreme Court has ruled?

The Department of Ed, and also, let’s not forget, the Department of Justice as well, will provide resources to colleges and universities addressing lawful admissions practices within the next 45 days, as colleges prepare for the next application cycle. That’s kind of about that time. The Department of Education will also provide assistance to colleges and university administering programs to support students from underserved communities. Also, in addition, the Department of Education will host a national summit that’s going to be focused on equal opportunity in post-secondary education. That’s going to happen next month. That’s going to be with advocates, student leaders, college and university administrators, researchers at state, local, and let’s not forget, the tribal community as well, those leaders, to share lessons learned innovative strategies, and develop additional resources for colleges and students to expand to educational opportunities. This is going to be, as you all could imagine, a summer long process to make sure that the college and universities feel prepared and ready and have the resources they need as we head into the next academic year.

When the president took office, he launched a Supreme Court review panel. They did meetings. They came back to him with a very lengthy report. He’s had that report for months now. We’ve never heard from him on what his analysis was on what reforms need to be done to a body that, today, he said is not normal. Where is he on that?

As it relates to the commission, look, he read the report. I know that was a question that I got often in the briefing room. He’s very grateful to that commission. Let’s not forget it was a diverse, bipartisan group of constitutional and legal experts who contributed to bring this together in an effort to applying the most collective expertise on court reform and proposal in decades.

(05:10)
Look, we have their report. He’s read it. I don’t have any decisions or anything to read out on anything moving forward on that particular report. Again, it was certainly an important exercise to make sure we bring in legal expert from both sides, in a bipartisan way, to kind of take a look at the courts. I’m not going to go beyond what the president shared with all of you or some of you who were in the Roosevelt Room when he was asked about the court, specifically.

He’s not going to endorse any particular part of that report. It’s just going to sit on the shelf and collect dust basically.

I wouldn’t say it’s sitting on the shelf and collecting dust. I would say that it was an important report. It was done by both Republicans and Democrats, a bipartisan group of people who came together and put this report together. I think that’s important. We’ve never seen that before. That is an action that the president wanted to take so we can get a sense of what legal experts have to say. We just don’t have anything to announce, as any additional steps to move forward on any specifics of the report. The president obviously read it and took a look at it. I just don’t have anything more to share. I would say I think it was an important report to have. Again, it’s never happened before. I think it’s important that the president asked to be done.

Karine, can I ask two quick ones on the president’s health? Obviously, his use of a CPAP machine was disclosed yesterday. It’s something that many Americans use with sleep [inaudible 00:06:40]. Karine, is what happened in the last couple of weeks that led him to use it. Was it, he was feeling tired, [inaudible 00:06:48]. Can you give us some background on what happened there?

As you know, the president disclosed this, I think, 15 years ago, the sleep apnea. It’s nothing new. It’s out there, certainly in the record. As you just mentioned, and many of you have covered this, 30 million people across the country certainly deal with sleep apnea, of all ages. One of the things that I can say is that I think the thing that’s important is it’s for better sleep. I think that’s one of the reasons that it was kind of added.

So he’s feeling tired, run down a little?

I mean, I’m not going to get into how the president is feeling. What I can say is one of the important things is getting better sleep. I think all of us can understand that, how important that could be. This is what it gives the opportunity for the president to do. Just don’t have anything else to add. It was something that was done within the last couple of weeks, don’t have a specific date on that, but what it allows, which is I think really important for the president, is to make sure he’s getting as much sleep as he can.

Well, maybe not directly, but shortly after, the president had his sandbag stumble at the Air Force Academy, he’s been using [inaudible 00:08:06] steps on Air Force One instead of the kind of truck that drives up. I’m wondering if that is [inaudible 00:08:15] type if it’s to address … He’s had a couple incidents falling on the stairs, getting up, and you guys just decided that it would be better for him. Can you walk me through what’s going on there?

I don’t have any decision process to walk through. I’m sure there’s a protocol that’s used for Air Force One, I just don’t have one. I mean, you guys see the president every day. When we speak to mobility, the president always says, “Watch him.” This was a president, let’s not forget, he went to a war zone country in Ukraine and did that in a way that was incredibly effective. The world got to see him out there and meet with the President Zelenskyy. I think that’s incredibly important. I just don’t have anything to share.

I guess, just to buttonhole it, we’ve seen a change in the medical technology he’s using. We’ve seen a behavioral change here. Is there anything that you guys are seeing that represents a medical change of any sort with the president?

So look, if you look at what we have put forward, as far as the president’s medical report, it is more comprehensive and extensive than any other president. You guys have, in front of you, and we’ve presented to all of you, memos [inaudible 00:09:25].

Well, in February. These things have happened since then.

I understand, but it is this year. It has been extensive, it has been comprehensive more than any other president. That still remains to be the fact. We’ve been pretty transparent about that. Even with when you all asked us about yesterday and we said it was related to sleep apnea, we were very transparent about that and we responded very quickly.

(09:51)
Look, again, we have put forward the most comprehensive medical report of the president. I think that’s important. When asked questions about what you all may have noticed, like yesterday, we’ve been very clear about that as well. I just don’t have anything else to detail. The president, shoot, he traveled yesterday. He’s traveling today. You saw how extensively he traveled during the midterms, especially his foreign travel. This is someone who is incredibly active as president and will continue to do so. That will not change.

Karina, I just have a question as a follow-up on the president’s health. Are there any plans for the president’s physician to brief the press about his health? Then I have one more question. Who’s paying for this trip today, because there are no standard public administration-wide events. Is the campaign reimbursing for this trip or …

I don’t have an answer for that. What was the first question again?

The first question is, are there any plans for the president’s physician to brief the press?

Look, we put forward a very comprehensive memos on the president’s health. I would refer you to that. No plans for the doctor to brief the press.

(10:55)
As it relates to the trip, it’s a mixed travel trip with official and political portions. Associated expenses are allocated and paid for in accordance with federal regulations.

What’s the official [inaudible 00:11:07] of this trip?

Let me finish. You all are always criticizing the president for not doing enough interviews. Today the president chose to do in studio, live on the top-rated show at four o’clock, which draws over 3 million plus viewers over its two hours to discuss issues of consequences to the American people, the economy, war on the European continent, our democracy and possibility also major rulings for the Supreme Court that would impact millions of people and so …

Was there any discussion of having the interview in Washington, DC or was it always going to be in New York?

Well, look, he’s going to New York and we took the opportunity to go in studio. It’s his first in studio interview. We think it’s important to make sure that we’re in front of three plus million people to talk about [inaudible 00:11:52], to talk about what’s going on around the world, to talk about all the things that is critical to the American people. That’s what you’re going to see from the president today.

Thank you.

All right. Thanks, everybody. Don’t fall.