White House sources are denying it, but information has leaked that at one point, there was a move to oust press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre from her post.
Of course, Jean-Pierre has accumulated an impressive blooper reel during her tenure, and it is plausible that whatever cooler heads remain in the Biden administration concluded that having KJP grace the podium was not an example of putting one’s best foot forward. Perhaps it’s putting one’s best foot in one’s mouth, but certainly not forward.
The New York Post reported that it has information that this past fall, high-level White House aides were trying to find a way to gently suggest that KJP seek employment elsewhere. After all, Jen Psaki decamped to MSNBC, and CNN could certainly use a headliner at this point.
Citing unnamed sources, the Post said that de facto White House communications chief Anita Dunn had planned to get top-level Democrats to convince KJP to take a new job. The informant said Dunn knew that White House chief of staff Jeff Zients was privy to the plan and that it had his blessing. The source commented, “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 rationale is obvious. From the Post:
“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.
“These issues are not second nature to people. Israel and Gaza is a perfect example. It’s very nuanced. Jen would have calls with people to feel well-versed enough to go to the briefing.”
“There’s an enormous amount of work that goes into getting ready,” the first source said, “and consistently she does not put in that level of work.”
Yes, quite a few people have been “amazed” at KJP’s work, although not for the reasons she thinks.
The Post said that after Dunn’s plan made its way around the White House, Jean-Pierre received an unsolicited job offer from Emily’s List. That group specializes in raising funds for pro-choice female Democrat candidates.
For her part, Jean-Pierre has been clear that she is not going anywhere and plans to stay through the next election. And during the attempt to convince her to move on, Jean-Pierre had her share of supporters in the administration. On Friday, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates gave the following statement to the Post:
Not only are these claims wildly false, but the reality is the polar opposite. Karine was never approached by anyone with such a message. She spends four hours preparing every day. And neither Jeff nor Anita did any such thing; both have been unflinchingly supportive of her. Every press secretary uses the binder. Why is she being singled out?
If Bates doesn’t know why by now, there is no sense in telling him.
It is easy to understand why the White House would want to replace KJP, and it is equally easy to understand why there was a move to quietly and nicely usher her on to the next phase of her career. There was the issue of optics. Imagine the uproar that would have ensued were she to be fired. A White House that has consistently prided itself on DEI and made history by hiring the first black lesbian for a high-profile position would have had a PR nightmare on its hands. One of the sources commented, “There’s a huge diversity issue, and they’re afraid of what folks are going to say.”
On the scale of things that the Biden administration has done to give us ulcers, this one rates relatively low. But it is a reminder of what we have been dealing with the past four years and what we can expect from four more.
