Everyone agrees now: Historic black lesbian Karine Jean-Pierre was ‘kinda dumb’ and bad at her job
Joe Biden deserves to be remembered as one of the worst presidents in history, but his future legacy got a significant boost this week as Democrats and journalists finally acknowledged what most normal Americans already knew: Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, one of the most celebrated DEI hires in recent memory, was “kinda dumb” and terrible at her job.
Jean-Pierre, who took over as Biden’s top spokesperson in 2022, was widely celebrated (by liberals obsessed with diversity) for being the first lesbian of color to serve in that role. “For the first time in our nation’s history, people around the world will have the opportunity to watch a talented, accomplished queer Black woman stand behind a podium and speak on behalf of the President of the United States as White House Press Secretary,” the executive director of Equality California said in a statement. “Karine’s strength, integrity and visibility will inspire generations of Americans to dream big, work hard and never apologize for being their authentic selves.” Earlier this year, Essence magazine cited her as an example of “black excellence” in the White House.
Journalists prodded Jean-Pierre to explain how she mustered the courage to become such a historic figure in the face of Republican bigotry. “How do you fight and still remain composed and fight in the midst of people trying to erase you and people trying to make you feel like you should not be there?” April Ryan of theGrio asked in 2023. Jean-Pierre argued that failure was “not an option.”
Alas, she failed. Even Democrats can admit that now. This week, in a shameless display of self-promotion, Jean-Pierre announced she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, and writing a book about the “betrayal” of Joe Biden. Her former colleagues were outraged and took the opportunity to express their true feelings about Jean-Pierre, which more or less aligned with the general public’s view. She “was one of the most ineffectual and unprepared people I’ve ever worked with,” a former White House official told Axios. “She didn’t know how to manage a team, didn’t know how to shape or deliver a message, and often created more problems than she solved.”
Former White House adviser Tim Wu wrote in a since-deleted X post that “the real problem with Jean-Pierre was that she was kinda dumb” and had “no interest in understanding harder topics,” which is why she often gave “random incoherent answers on policy.” Axios reporter Alex Thompson remarked that Wu “wasn’t alone in this opinion.” Democratic lawmakers were also eager to share their thoughts. One member of Congress said Jean-Pierre’s explanation of her decision to leave the party was as “confusing and disjointed as her answers in her White House press briefings.” Another described her as “the worst press secretary in American history,” apart from Sean Spicer. “There were rumors that the Biden folks were trying to get rid of her because she’s so terrible,” the Democrat said. “I don’t know who wrote her book. We know she couldn’t give a press conference without reading every word from her briefing.” (See also: Harris, Kamala.)
Biden didn’t fire Jean-Pierre for the same reason he didn’t fire Xavier Becerra, the first Latino health secretary in history. Becerra was widely loathed within the administration for his incompetent leadership, but administration officials were afraid to “draw the ire” of the racial grievance-mongers who praised Biden for assembling “the most diverse cabinet in history.” Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns reported in 2022 that Becerra’s selection had been a “hasty choice” to assuage a Democratic coalition that insisted on “treating the cabinet as an identity-politics Rubik’s Cube.”
Jean-Pierre’s critics might be loath to admit it, but these Democrats are essentially agreeing with the solid majority of Americans who oppose affirmative action and other DEI-related nonsense. Perhaps they have finally realized that obsessing over diversity is a great way to ensure that the likes of Jean-Pierre, Becerra, and other hyper-ambitious idiots end up with jobs that they aren’t any good at but can’t be fired from without inciting the grievance mob. According to former colleagues, Jean-Pierre wasn’t just bad at her job, she was also a shameless grifter who enlisted a publicist to help boost her profile and get a job on the View after leaving the White House. Leaving the Democratic Party and writing a book about it seems to have been plan B.
“Everyone thinks this is a grift,” a former White House official told Politico. Another said it was “difficult to see how this is anything but a bizarre cash grab.” A Democratic operative who worked with Jean-Pierre before she joined the White House called her book project and party switch “the most grift-y thing I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s saying something in Washington.”
Assessing Biden’s legacy in the coming years will be more complicated than one might expect given his disastrous policies and inability to function as president. He may ultimately be viewed as someone who, however inadvertently, helped usher in a Golden Age of American Greatness. Assuming he had any say in the matter, Biden’s decision to run again was instrumental in securing Donald Trump’s victory in 2024. He secured a conclusive victory over the #MeToo movement in 2020, when he was credibly accused of sexual assault and Democrats gave up on believing “all women.”
By elevating Jean-Pierre and other incompetent grifters to positions of authority, Biden compelled his former aides and other Democrats to reckon with that incompetence. The floodgates are open. They are no longer afraid to speak out and admit (implicitly, for now) that they were wrong. It’s not unreasonable to argue that when all is said and done, Joe Biden will have done more than any public figure to dismantle the DEI-industrial complex that enabled Jean-Pierre’s improbable rise.
