Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the tragic death of George Floyd, who was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. On the same day, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki fielded questions from news outlets concerning police reform, diplomatic relations with Russia, housing costs, and the infrastructure bill. Asked first about the upcoming summit between President Biden and Vladimir Putin, Psaki tried to explain and also remind the press that diplomacy is a thing that up until about four years ago worked well when practiced in good faith.

Psaki began by saying: “We may have forgotten over the last couple of years, but this is how diplomacy works.” And unlike the previous administration, which was filled with impeached presidents and all, the nature of global leadership includes figuring out how best to live in a world filled with people who don’t always agree with you. “We don’t meet with people only when we agree. It’s actually important to meet with leaders when we have a range of disagreements as we do with.” As a result, unlike the last administration, which made foreign policy based on some movie about the organized crime that Donald Trump watched when he was a tween, “We don’t regard the meeting with the Russian president as a reward. We regard it as a vital part of defending America’s interests, and President Biden is meeting with Vladimir Putin because of our countries’ differences, not in spite of them. It’s an opportunity to raise concerns we have about them, and again to move toward a more stable and predictable relationship.” Right?

And there was more.

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Psaki was asked a few different times about Republican obstruction in regards to police reform legislation, and not unlike the infrastructure bill, she pressed the importance of seeing what and where the bill is after compromises have been made. She did respond to the idea that Biden should be offering up more executive actions, saying that he has made his feeling very public regarding the need for new and more modern police reforms. He has also reversed the Department of Justice’s previous Trumpian/Sessionian/Barrian mandate to act like the fragile dictator’s secret police.

Steve Doocy’s kid is still mostly interested in fanning the conspiracy theory claims that in asking for an international investigation, the Biden administration is secretly a part of a global Jewish conspiracy to elect Anthony Fauci the Muslim leader of Obama’s plan to turn white babies into Jospeh Stalin after being injected by Bill Gates with microchips that turn teachers into race-bating historians. (And no more Dr. Seuss!) Doocy decided to ask again about what the Biden administration was going to do about his boss’ demands that he only ask GOP and Alex Jones talking point questions written down for him by his dad. He received this withering response from Psaki: “Well, we went through this journey together yesterday, so let’s do it again.”

Later on, a reporter tried to ask a question in what can only be called the most irresponsible fashion. Attempting a query into the theory that the origin of the 2019 novel coronavirus may be tied to a laboratory in Wuhan, China, a reporter asked about a report the Republican Party is now pushing forward that some selection of intelligence officials were silenced internally over their suspicions the COVID-19 virus was man-made. The reporter asked about what the Biden administration is (or isn’t) doing to ensure that the intelligence community doesn’t end up being compromised in this fashion. However, this reporter—in spitting out the Republican talking point version of the question without actually analyzing what the claim means about the Republican Party and its leadership over the past many years—allows someone who is not paying attention to believe this is somehow a condemnation of the Biden administration.

Psaki responded first by clarifying the question itself: “Intelligence suppressed by the prior administration?” This led to a gradually dwindling and unfortunate response from the reporter, who implicated both administrations. But this isn’t about the Biden administration suppressing intelligence—the Republican Party’s attempts to turn an ongoing investigation into the origin of the COVId-19 virus is mostly about their desire confuse the media landscape in the hopes of washing their hands of their terrible leadership, which bungled the United States’ response to pandemic. Psaki clarified: “I think this is an accusation about the prior administration.” She then said the Biden administration has indicated they’re looking into fixing the previous administration’s problems.

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Sadly, there’s a real and serious question here that this reporter is unable to tackle because she willingly or unwillingly allowed herself to be used as a pawn: Will the Biden administration use the GOP’s cynical ploy against the intelligence community to get them to help formulate and enact real oversight of those organizations? That’s the real question. That’s the question that would test both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party’s leadership. A reporter could ask it of both parties in the hopes of enriching Americans’ discourse on national security . 

When pressed on whether or not the Biden administration would find a way to pass an infrastructure investment plan regardless of Republican participation, Psaki responded: “The president’s only line in the sand is inaction.”