KJP fails to land mental gymnastics routine when confronted over hypocrisy of Biden's accepted use of 'bloodbath'

The left's apoplexy over former President Donald Trump's recent of the well-worn term "bloodbath" continues to pay dividends.

The White House' repeated condemnations of the term exposed press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to questions Tuesday about whether President Joe Biden's use of "bloodbath" was similarly deserving of a formal denunciation.

Jean-Pierre did not fare well in her attempt to reconcile Democratic outrage with Biden's culpability.

Quick background

On March 16, Trump used the word "bloodbath" in reference to the economic fallout of continued offshoring of jobs and automobile manufacturing plants under the Biden administration.

Trump addressed Chinese dictator Xi Jinping during his speech at the Dayton International Airport in Ohio, saying, "Let me tell you something ... those big monster car manufacturing plants that you're building in Mexico right now, and you think you're going to get that, you're going to not hire Americans, and you're going to sell the cars to us? No."

"We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys – if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they're not going to sell those cars."

Blaze News previously reported that Democrats and the liberal media — including CBS News, Politico, NPR, Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today — rushed to mischaracterize Trump's remarks while glossing over their own use of the term in recent months and years.

The social media account for Biden's re-election campaign helped perpetuate the false narrative, posting a de-contextualized excerpt of the video with the caption, "Trump: If I don't get elected, it's gonna be a bloodbath. It's gonna be a bloodbath for the country."

Doubling down

Trump and the Republican Party doubled down on the use of the term this week, applying it in other contexts.

The Republican front-runner criticized the Biden administration's failed border policies while speaking to a crowd Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at a podium emblazoned with a sign that read, "Stop Biden's Border Bloodbath," reported USA Today.

The Republican National Committee, similarly criticizing Biden over the fallout of his failure to secure the border, launched a website Tuesday entitled, "Biden Bloodbath."

The website claims that Biden "is allowing vicious criminals into the United States, and innocent Americans across the country are paying the price. Lethal drugs, cartels, gangs, and terrorists are taking advantage of the crisis to enter the U.S. and threaten America. This is an invasion aided and abetted by Joe Biden, supported by Democrats who vote for his dangerous and cruel policies. This is Biden's border bloodbath."

More mental gymnastics

When asked about Trump's latest use of the term bloodbath during the White House press briefing Tuesday, Jean-Pierre said, "We have to denounce any violent rhetoric that we hear, certainly from our leaders, right, that tears our country apart."

"Any type of violent rhetoric, we're going to denounce that," added Jean-Pierre. "It doesn't matter who it comes from, we're going to denounce it."

White House correspondent Peter Doocy sought clarification, asking Jean-Pierre, "So when Donald Trump is talking about a bloodbath, it is violent rhetoric. What was it when Joe Biden said in 2020, 'What we can't let happen is let this primary become a negative bloodbath?'"

Biden made the remark in March 2020 when campaigning against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) in the Democratic primaries.

Doocy's question clearly put Jean-Pierre in a bind. After all, she had just vowed to denounce such "violent rhetoric" regardless of the source.

"So I'm going to be really mindful and careful about Donald Trump, but if you read — because he is a candidate — we're talking about a 2024 election, you should read what he said in its context. So you got to read what he said in context."

Doocy added, "I'm just saying, 'bloodbath' is an ugly word when Trump uses it. What is it when Biden uses it?"

"No, no, no," stammered Jean-Pierre. "Let's be very clear. You gotta actually ask me the question in the context of what it was said, right? And what was said when he said that, right, in his remarks, in his speech, right? And so that's being disingenuous in your question."

After Doocy followed up again with the direct quote from Biden, Jean-Pierre attempted to excuse the geriatric Democrat's language with the kind of context her allies previously denied Trump.

"He was talking about a group of people, a group of people," said Jean-Pierre. "That's what he's talking about. What the president was talking about during the primary was not to allow it to be the words and the primary and that election to become negative. Two different things. They're not the same. They're not the same, and your question is disingenuous."

While refusing to denounce Biden's use of allegedly "violent rhetoric," Jean-Pierre stressed that such denunciations were nevertheless important.

Before executing the in-person equivalent of an abrupt hang-up, the press secretary suggested that Trump's use of the word "bloodbath" in relation to the automotive industry was more inflammatory than Biden's use "because we saw what happened on January 6."

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