‘The way the party takes Black women for granted has made my remaining an official part of that political coalition untenable,’ Karine Jean-Pierre says
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed black women “get forgotten” by the Democratic Party—after liberal media outlets gushed over her appointment as the first black, lesbian White House press secretary.
“As a black woman who has walked through the walls [sic] of the White House and been part of this party for a long time, I believe … that we get forgotten, and by large part, the Democratic Party does not see us,” Jean-Pierre told liberal late-night host Stephen Colbert on Monday night.
Her claim echoed criticisms included in Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, her book that was published Tuesday. “The way the party takes Black women for granted has made my remaining an official part of that political coalition untenable,” she wrote.
Yet Jean-Pierre’s race and sexuality—and her gender, by proxy—were the very focus of liberals celebrating her appointment as the Biden White House press secretary in 2022.
“She will be the first black woman, the first out LGBTQ+ person to serve in this role … because representation matters,” Jen Psaki said from the White House briefing room.
The View co-host Sunny Hostin said, “You are a groundbreaker in so many ways. A glass ceiling breaker in so many ways.”
ABC News, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times similarly lauded Jean-Pierre as “historic” because of her race and sexual orientation. Some supporters even defended her qualifications against critics who accused her of being a diversity hire.
But that changed in June when Jean-Pierre announced she was leaving the Democratic Party as she began teasing her book. Former colleagues quickly turned on her and began trashing her abilities, with one calling her “kinda dumb.”
Former president Joe Biden’s pick for vice president also contradicts Jean-Pierre’s claim. During the 2020 election, Biden tapped Kamala Harris to hold the nation’s second-highest office after promising he’d select a black woman as his running mate.
Jean-Pierre, in her book, condemns Democrats and media pundits for conducting “shady” business to oust Biden following his disastrous 2024 debate. She said she saw “no such decline” of Biden’s mental acuity as outlined in Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, Original Sin, according to the Daily Mail.
Jean-Pierre also argued that Biden’s prostate cancer wouldn’t have affected his ability to lead.
“Suffice to say, Biden’s cancer diagnosis, regardless of what he knew when, would not have been directly related to his alleged cognitive decline, nor would it have affected his ability to make competent decisions as a world leader,” Jean-Pierre wrote.
