White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was grilled on Tuesday about an explosive CNN report that was published earlier in the day about someone connected to ISIS allegedly helping to smuggle more than a dozen Uzbek illegal immigrants into the U.S.

“The episode was so alarming that an urgent classified intelligence report was circulated to President Joe Biden’s top Cabinet officials in their morning briefing book,” the report said. “For some counterterrorism officials, it shows that the US is deeply vulnerable to the possibility that terrorists could sneak across the southern border by hiding amid the surge of migrants entering the country in search of asylum.”

Jean-Pierre was asked during the White House press briefing how it was possible that someone connected to ISIS was helping to smuggle people into the U.S.

“So, I just want to make sure that folks who are watching understand the question. So, I just want to be really clear here,” she said. “So, the intelligence alerted us to a human smuggling network. We moved fast and — and successfully to — to — successfully to disrupt it. So, just want to be very clear of that.”

“So, let’s be very clear about that,” she added. “And we are grateful — we were very grateful to the law enforcement for their quick work and their vigilance on this.”

She claimed that there was “no sign” that anyone smuggled into the U.S. had connections to terrorist organizations.

“And what we were able to do as precaution: People brought here by smuggling network are being subject to extra vetting and are all in removal proceedings,” she said. “And in addition to that — in addition to that — anyone coming across the border outside of the network who matches the profile of those in the smuggling network is subject to extra vetting, detained, and put in expedited removal proceedings as well.”

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WATCH:

"How's it possible that an ISIS sympathizer is sneaking people into this country?"

JEAN-PIERRE: "We moved fast and successfully to disrupt it"

"Are you saying you know where all of the people this ISIS sympathizer snuck into the country are?"

JEAN-PIERRE: Well… pic.twitter.com/blpY3XGBlp

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 29, 2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signaled during a press conference this week that he will stay off the campaign trail for as long as it takes to get his state through Hurricane Idalia.

DeSantis arrived back in Tallahassee from Iowa on Saturday to manage the state’s crisis response as the massive storm prepares to hit the Big Bend area of Florida’s west coast.

During a press conference on Tuesday, a reporter asked the 44-year-old governor: “How long are you planning on staying in Florida and off the campaign trail?”

“Well, this is no different, you remember [Hurricane] Ian, we were in the midst of a governor campaign,” DeSantis responded. “I had all kinds of stuff scheduled, not just in Florida — around the country we were doing different things.”

“And you do what you need to do, so that’s what we’re doing; it’s going to be no different than what we did during Hurricane Ian,” he continued. “I’m hoping that this storm is not [as] catastrophic as Hurricane Ian was, but we’re going to do what we need to do because it’s just something that’s important.”

“But it’s no different than what we’ve done in past iterations of all this stuff,” he concluded.

During his 2022 re-election bid, DeSantis paused campaigning for approximately three weeks to manage the state’s response to Hurricane Ian.

DeSantis received praise at the time for his response to Hurricane Ian, including from President Joe Biden.

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“What the governor’s done is pretty remarkable,” Biden said. “I think he’s done a good job.”

DeSantis says that he is putting managing his state’s response to Hurricane Idalia about his presidential campaign and that “we’re going to do what we need to do because it’s just something that’s important.” pic.twitter.com/Qdw25a3yaz

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 29, 2023