The Cringe-Inducing Tenure of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

Posted on Monday, May 13, 2024
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by Andrew Shirley
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AMAC EXCLUSIVE

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This month, Karine Jean-Pierre is celebrating her two-year anniversary as White House Press Secretary. Unfortunately for the Obama alum, that milestone comes amid reports that many of Karine Jean-Pierre’s White House colleagues have spent the past six months trying to get rid of her.

According to the New York Post, last December, White House communications chief Anita Dunn pressured Karine Jean-Pierre on behalf of the White House to step down from her position. She was even allegedly offered a position as the president of the pro-abortion group EMILYs List should she decide to leave.

The White House and Karine Jean-Pierre have both denied the allegations. However, national security press aide John Kirby has taken on a noticeably bigger role during press briefings, with some referring to him as the “co-briefer.”

It’s easy to see why many in Biden’s inner circle might want Karine Jean-Pierre gone. Over the past 24 months, her tenure has been marked by some of the most cringe-inducing moments in the history of the job. Here are six of her most notable unforced errors.

Blaming Trump, Republicans, and Governor Abbott for the border crisis

In March, thousands of illegal immigrants attempted to storm the U.S.-Mexican border by “tearing down razor wire and rushing guards at El Paso.” The incident brought renewed attention to the fact that 10,000 migrants, on average, are illegally crossing the border every single day.

When pressed for answers, Karine Jean-Pierre bizarrely implied Donald Trump was responsible for the incident. Despite Trump being out of office for more than three years, she attempted to make the case that the chaos at the border was the fault of the former president, along with Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Republican Party.

When Karine Jean-Pierre was asked what Joe Biden would do about the growing violence, she stated, “that’s a question for the Republican Governor of Texas.” She then accused Abbott of trying to “politicize” the crisis.

Karine Jean-Pierre also asserted that Trump and the GOP were to blame for rejecting a border security bill that most experts who were not partisan Democrats agreed would actually make the crisis worse and allow more unvetted migrants into the country.

Telling reporters to “talk to an economist”

Last September, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the federal deficit would double by the end of 2023, one of the largest annual increases ever recorded. Despite the grim economic news, President Biden went on a national tour and reassured Americans that he had aggressively slashed the deficit.

When Karine Jean-Pierre repeated the president’s talking points to a deeply skeptical press pool, they pushed back hard. A New York Post reporter asked, “Why was the deficit increasing?”

Karine Jean-Pierre struggled to answer before infamously giving up and saying, “Talk to an economist.” The absurd response went viral, and her inability to explain Biden’s claims on the economy – a core requirement of her job – likely left many inside the White House questioning her competence.

Defending Biden’s bizarre cannibal gaffe

Last month, President Biden bizarrely claimed that his uncle “got shot down in New Guinea, and they never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea.”

When Fox News reporter Peter Doocy questioned this, and several reporters chuckled, Karine Jean-Pierre scolded Doocy, saying, “We should not make jokes.” She then spoke at length about Biden’s uncle’s military service while never explaining why the President of the United States absurdly suggested that his uncle was shot down and eaten by cannibals. (A Department of Defense spokesperson later confirmed that Biden’s uncle was not a pilot but an air crewman whose plane crashed in the sea and his body was never recovered.)

Explaining why Biden is speaking to the dead

Ronald Reagan may have been “The Great Communicator,” but even he couldn’t speak to the dead. Yet Biden claimed to do just that.

In February, Biden told a room full of Democrat donors that former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl “spoke with him” in 2021 about the Capitol riot. The only problem with that? Kohl died in 2017.

That same week, Biden also said that he had just spoken with former French President Francois Mitterrand, who left office in 1995 and died in 1996.

When pressed on Biden’s clearly confused mental state, Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed it as a simple error, claiming such verbal mistakes “happen to all of us.” The best example she could come up with was Speaker of the House Mike Johnson saying Iran instead of Israel during a recent press conference.

Confusing the names of similar-sounding nations is quite common, but claiming you spoke to foreign leaders who’ve been dead for many years and out of office for even longer is bizarre by any metric.

Saying three slain soldiers died fighting for “the administration”

It’s difficult to tell if Karine Jean-Pierre has spent more time clearing up Biden’s gaffes or her own.

In January, a drone strike in Jordan killed three U.S. service members. Shortly after the attack, Karine Jean-Pierre took to friendly news outlet MSNBC and delivered one of her most infamous lines, stating, “Our deepest, obviously our deepest condolences go out, and our heartfelt condolences go out to the families who lost, uh, three, three brave, uh, three brave, uh, three brave, three folks who are military folks, who are brave, who are always fighting, who are fighting on behalf of, uh, this administration.”

Her struggle to get the words out was notable enough, but to say that those service members died fighting “on behalf of this administration” rather than on behalf of the country and its people incensed Americans nationwide. Critics called her statement “disgusting,” and she created a slew of negative headlines for the White House – precisely the opposite of what she is supposed to do as press secretary.

Explaining why Biden called longtime American ally Japan “xenophobic”

In May, President Biden seemingly accused Japan of being “xenophobic.” He said, “Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic.”

The only defense Karine Jean-Pierre could muster when pressed as to why the president went after Japan was, “I think the president was very clear.” The press corps quickly pointed out that the president wasn’t clear, noting, “That’s why we’re asking you.” She offered no apology on behalf of Biden and instead segued into a canned answer about the importance of immigration.

Reading the wrong scripted answer

President Joe Biden having scripted answers and a list of reporters to call on has earned him plenty of mockery and criticism. But that may just be a habit he picked up from Karine Jean-Pierre.

Back in 2022, Karine Jean-Pierre was asked a question about the decision to change the first Democrat primary contest from New Hampshire to South Carolina. In response, she launched into a completely unrelated answer about the Hatch Act, before catching her mistake and restarting her response halfway through.

The incident raised fresh allegations that Karine Jean-Pierre is in cahoots with reporters to pre-screen questions and have prepared answers on-hand – and that she can’t even successfully pull that off.

Despite glaring questions about her fitness for the job and the fact that her own colleagues evidently want her out, Karine Jean-Pierre has shown no indication that she wishes to leave her position. She stated multiple times that she would stay through the election. But if the embarrassing mistakes keep piling up, it may no longer be her decision to make.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.

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