White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sidestepped a question by a reporter who asked whether Joe Biden is “woke”.
James Rosen, Newsmax’s White House correspondent who formerly worked with Fox News, asked Ms Jean-Pierre about Mr Biden’s so-called “wokeism” – the most “prominent theme” raised by Republicans.
“And so, we hear so much talk about ‘woke capitalism’, a ‘woke military’, and so on. And by way of trying to clarify this for the American people, I wonder if we couldn’t begin with a threshold question to wit: Is President Biden woke?” he said.
The question prompted suppressed amusement and subtle grins in the briefing room on Tuesday before the press secretary spoke about what was actually important to the president.
“So, let me tell you what the president cares about and what’s important to this president,” she said.
“The president doesn’t – doesn’t concern himself about what Republicans are trying to do in creating political stunts, in making an issue out of the things that they feel benefits them politically, not the American people, not what matters to the American people, but what benefits them politically for their own, for their own ability to move forward.”
Rosen cut in: “So you wouldn’t describe him as ‘woke’?”
The White House press secretary continued speaking and said Republicans wanted to cut social security, medicare, and not actually deal with issues that matter to Americans.
“That’s not what we’re about,” she added. “We’re about fighting for these – for these programmes. And that’s what you’re going to see from the president, and that’s what he cares about.”
Most recently, Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused Mr Biden of being a slave to a “woke mob” in the Republican response to the president’s State of the Union address that leaned heavily on social conservatism that has animated much of the GOP.
Ms Sanders, who won her election last year, said the nation’s ideals were under attack.
“I’m the first woman to lead my state,” she said. “He’s (her former boss Donald Trump) the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is.”
While the woke culture has its origins in the mid-19th century, the term “woke” gained prominence during the original Black Lives Matter movement in the mid-2010s.
The term is used to identify someone who is informed, educated and a strong advocate of social justice and racial equality.
However, it has been used by conservatives as a pejorative term that signifies there are systemic injustices in American society and is rejected by Republicans like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.
