White House dances around Biden concern about speaker fight

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced a barrage of questions on Wednesday about Tuesday’s ousting of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) but repeatedly declined to characterize President Joe Biden‘s feelings about the situation.

Earlier in the day, Biden told reporters that he was concerned that the “dysfunction” on display in the House might jeopardize his legislative agenda and future aid for Ukraine.

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“The president hopes the house will quickly elect a speaker because the urgent challenges facing our nation will not wait,” Jean-Pierre said at the top of her briefing. “Once the House meets their responsibilities to elect the speaker, President Biden looks forward to working together with them and members of both parties in Congress in good faith on behalf of the American people.”

Pressed by reporters, Jean-Pierre declined to describe Biden’s relationships with Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Steve Scalise (R-LA), the two Republicans who have declared their candidacy for speaker, and she also would not answer a question about whether the possibility of a “Speaker Trump” had been discussed internally at the White House.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said Tuesday that the GOP should vote for former President Donald Trump to be the next speaker, but Trump suggested Wednesday afternoon that he is committed to running for president again.

Jean-Pierre and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that Biden had previously expressed confidence to other world leaders of the United States’s continued support for Ukraine despite the drama surrounding the speaker’s office, but she changed her tune slightly following Biden’s comments Wednesday to reporters.

“Of course it is of concern when you have a small fraction, you know, in Congress like the House Republicans who are causing this type of chaos. I’ve said this before,” she said Wednesday when asked about Biden’s remarks. “As it relates to the funding, we continue to see broad support, majority of bipartisan support, majority support in a bipartisan way, in both the House and the Senate to continue our commitment to Ukraine. And this was a promise. This is a promise that both House Republicans and Democrats — Democrats in the House and in the Senate, pardon me, and Republicans in the Senate have made, and so we want to make sure we want to see that commitment continued for the people of Ukraine and so that nothing has changed there.”

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Biden also announced Wednesday that he plans to deliver a “major” national address regarding the war in Ukraine, but Jean-Pierre would not give any details regarding the specifics or content of the speech.

You can watch Wednesday’s briefing in full below.