The Biden White House has denied that they secretly planned to remove Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre last year.
The New York Post reported on Thursday that multiple insiders within the Biden Administration, including longtime Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn had been secretly recruiting prominent Democrats outside of the White House to urge Jean-Pierre to exit the position.
Additionally, they claimed that White House chief of staff Jeff Zients knew about and supported the plot, which took place in the fall of 2023.
However, the alleged plot was denied by Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates, who told 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.”
Additionally, shortly after the Post’s report was first released on Thursday evening, Zients denied reports from multiple sources, saying, “The President and everyone in the White House deeply values Karine — she is an incredibly talented communicator and trusted advisor who keeps a cool head in any crisis and always has your back. We are lucky to have her on the core team advancing the President’s historic agenda every day.”
Sources alleged that Dunn had asked a number of people to speak with Jean-Pierre in a bid to convince her to leave the position.
“There were a number of people [Dunn] asked to engage Karine,” a source told the Post. “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.”
Jean-Pierre “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.”
Another source said that Zients and Dunn “were trying to find Karine a graceful exit,” but that it was difficult due to the fact that Jean-Pierre’s removal would have been disastrous publicly, due to her position as not only a black woman, but the first openly gay person to hold the press secretary position.
“There’s a huge diversity issue and they’re afraid of what folks are going to say,” the source added.
The issue largely stemmed from Jean-Pierre’s tendency to read answers directly from the binder, and never being willing to answer questions that posed any level of difficulty or scrutiny on her position or on the Biden administration, as well as her favoritism towards certain reporters.
“Karine doesn’t have an understanding of the issues and she reads the book [binder] word-for-word,” said one source, who added that Jean-Pierre “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.”
The source added that Jean-Pierre’s predecessor, Jen Psaki, who left the position less than halfway into the Biden administration’s time in the White House, “would have calls with people to feel well-versed enough to go to the briefing.”
“I think everyone’s resigned to the fact that she’s not going anywhere on her own,” he added. ”She thinks she’s doing a really good job and thinks the president wants her to stay.”
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Author: John Symank
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