The press secretary has been nothing but an embarrassment for Biden. It’s no wonder people want her gone.
And Karine Jean-Pierre could lose her job after this sudden betrayal.
The New York Post has revealed that top aides to President Biden covertly devised a scheme this past fall to replace White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre by enlisting outside supporters to push her out the door.
Jean-Pierre, who made history in May 2022 by becoming the first openly gay and black person to hold the position, has a frustrating habit of reading to reporters prewritten responses straight from a binder at her regular briefings. Her superiors saw this as a less-than-stellar pitch for the 81-year-old Biden as he prepared his re-election campaign.
According to insiders, de facto White House communications chief Anita Dunn, 66, the wife of Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer, informed colleagues that she had chosen to call in well-known Democrats to convince Jean-Pierre, 49, that it was time to move on.
One source who learned of the plan directly from Dunn, whose position as senior adviser has been held by Jared Kushner (Donald Trump), Valerie Jarrett (Barack Obama), and Karl Rove (George W. Bush), said, “There were a number of people she asked to engage Karine.”
The source said that Dunn had claimed White House chief of staff Jeff Zients was aware of and in favor of the covert plan to drive Jean-Pierre out of the West Wing.
“There was an effort to have some outside folks who Karine knows and trusts talk to her about why leaving last fall would have made a lot of sense for her and her career,” the source said, calling it an “effort to encourage her to move along.”
Jean-Pierre, the person added, “had been in the job for a year and a half at that point, which is a pretty standard tenure for a press secretary in what is admittedly a very demanding job [and] Jeff and Anita [tried] to have folks that she would listen to and trust talk to her about why it might be wise to do that.”
Before leaving to become a broadcaster and analyst at MSNBC, Jean-Pierre’s predecessor, Jen Psaki, served as press secretary for almost sixteen months.
A second source said that “Jeff and Anita were trying to find Karine a graceful exit” because of the ugly optics of removing her against her will.
According to this source, who confirmed at least one outside official did communicate with Jean-Pierre and learned of the effort from many persons briefed by Dunn, “There’s a huge diversity issue and they’re afraid of what folks are going to say.”
The initial source added that while the disclosure of Dunn’s intention is probably going to create uncomfortable workplace dynamics, Jean-Pierre is not likely to leave.
“She has been pretty consistent in telling people from the minute she got the job that she was going to stay through the election,” they said.
“I think Karine has decided to stay come h*ll or high water and that’s that.”
Even if Jean-Pierre isn’t going anywhere, the problems that led to Dunn’s botched maneuvers still exist. According to both sources, the press secretary is too dependent on notes to offer the criticism and swift repartee required to successfully support Biden’s cause.
“Karine doesn’t have an understanding of the issues and she reads the book [binder] word-for-word,” said the second source, adding that the situation is made worse by the fact that “she thinks she’s doing an amazing job.”
“She doesn’t have a grasp of the issues and doesn’t spend the time to learn,” this person said.
Maybe she’s more like her presidential boss than we thought…
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
