White House denies 'public spat' between Biden, Pelosi over Taiwan trip

White House spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday denied tensions between the Biden White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her visit to Taiwan.

Speaking to Fox News, Kirby said “I don’t believe that there was a public spat" when asked about an apparent disagreement on the prudence of Pelosi's diplomatic visit.

Biden previously highlighted concerns from the U.S. military about the speaker visiting the island, saying the top brass felt the trip was "not a good idea."

Kirby, however, publicly asserted that Pelosi had the right to make the visit, the Epoch Times noted. "This is her decision that we provided her obviously support context analysis that she needed to make her decision," he told Fox on Tuesday.

The House Speaker arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday morning, prompted the People's Republic of China to announce the military would conduct live-fire drills around the island. Kirby was adamant that the U.S. was prepared for such a response.

“This is exactly what we would expect the Chinese to do in the wake of or even during Speaker Pelosi’s trip,” Kirby said, per the outlet. “So this is pretty much the playbook we expect, and we’ll be watching to see how they develop.”

Taiwan does not formally claim independence, though Beijing considers the island to be under separatist control. Taipei and Beijing both agree on the existence of a single Chinese state including the territory of both, but each claims to be the legitimate government of that polity.