White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday that the White House isn’t in the habit of editing photos released to the press, following last week’s controversy over the royal family publishing a badly edited picture of Kate Middleton and her children.
During a press conference, CBS News’s political correspondent Ed O’Keefe asked Jean-Pierre whether the White House ever digitally alters photos of President Joe Biden or the first lady before releasing them.
Laughter bubbled up from reporters at the question itself. For a moment, Jean-Pierre seemed genuinely confused. “Digitally altered?” she asked. “Not that I know of. I would say, no. Why would we digitally alter photos?”
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She then asked if he was inquiring because of the royal family’s recent public relations disaster, and O’Keefe responded that he was just doing his “due diligence.”
“Why does the monarch have to do anything with us? No, that is not something that we do here,” Jean-Pierre said, chuckling.
Earlier this week, the Princess of Wales—who’s been out of the public eye for weeks after her mysterious hospitalization—issued an apology for a sloppily “manipulated” photograph of her with her children. On Monday, she was photographed sitting next to Prince William in a car, although the image is blurry and unclear.
As the PR disaster continues, speculation about Middleton’s health, marriage, and physical location on this Earth abounds.
