FACT CHECK

Post misquotes Karine Jean-Pierre about Trump, political rhetoric | Fact check

Portrait of Joedy McCreary Joedy McCreary
USA TODAY

The claim: Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden White House is ‘just gonna continue’ calling Trump ‘threat to democracy’

A July 15 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes video of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaking during a press briefing.

“BREAKING NEWS: KARINE JEAN-PIERRE just announced they will continue to call Donald Trump a threat to democracy despite him recently being shot,” the post’s caption begins.

It goes on to quote Jean-Pierre as saying, “'We’re just gonna continue' calling Trump a 'threat to democracy.'"

The post received more than 300 likes in four days and was reposted thousands of times on X, formerly Twitter.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

Fact check roundup: False claims about Trump rally shooting spread online

Our rating: False

Jean-Pierre did not make any such statement. She said the administration was "going to continue to denounce violence." She did not say the words “threat to democracy” at any point during the briefing.

Post distorts answer from White House press secretary

A shooting at Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killed one person, critically injured two more and left the former president with a wounded ear. In response, President Joe Biden called on Americans to “lower the temperature” of their political rhetoric and said it was a “mistake” to use the word “bull’s-eye” in reference to Trump and his re-election bid.

But Jean-Pierre did not announce during a briefing two days after the shooting that the Biden White House would continue calling Trump a “threat to democracy.” The Instagram post both wrongly attributes that phrase to her and mischaracterizes her response to a question about it.

Fact check: No, Karine Jean-Pierre didn't avoid reporter's question

The post contains a 56-second clip of a question-and-answer with Jean-Pierre during a briefing July 15 at the White House. In the clip, a reporter asks Jean-Pierre about a view that the agenda promoted by Trump and the Republican Party “is a threat to democracy."

"So how do you get that message across while bringing the temperature down?" asks the reporter. "How is that phrasing going to be replaced? Is it going to be replaced?”

Jean-Pierre responds in part by saying the activity that is “just going to continue” is the administration’s condemnation of violence – not any labeling of Trump.

“We have our differences, and it’s OK to have our differences. And it is OK to speak to someone’s record, to speak to someone’s character,” Jean-Pierre said in part. “We’re just going to continue to denounce violence. It is important to do that, forcefully be against violence. Political violence has no place in America. It should not be. It does not have a place here. The president’s going to continue to be very, very forceful about that, but we have a difference of agenda.”

At no point during the briefing did Jean-Pierre use the phrase “threat to democracy.” It appears three times in the official White House transcript, in each instance as part of a reporter’s question. But contrary to the claim at the root of the Instagram post, she did not directly say in any of her responses that the administration would use it.

The shooting at the Trump rally has spawned a significant amount of misinformation on social media. USA TODAY has debunked false claims that an image shows Trump after the assassination attempt without an ear injury, a video shows the gunman and an image shows Secret Service agents surrounding Trump while smiling after the shooting.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.