Karine Jean-Pierre Is a World-Historically Bad Press Secretary

When Republicans control the presidency, clips of the White House press secretary saying something during a press briefing that displeases the Left circulate like wildfire on progressive Twitter. When Democrats control the presidency, clips of the White House press secretary saying something during a press briefing that displeases the Right circulate like wildfire on conservative Twitter. But, by and large, the press secretaries in question — on both sides of the aisle — hew to a basic standard of competence. They’re capable of quick, semi-coherent answers that spin whatever question they receive from the press corps into administration-friendly talking points. That’s to be expected. Otherwise, why would they have the job in the first place?

That’s a relevant question as it pertains to Karine Jean-Pierre. The Biden administration’s current press secretary, who took over from her predecessor Jen Psaki last May, is just awful at her job. I mean that in a completely nonideological sense. The built-in advantages of being a Democratic (rather than a Republican) press secretary notwithstanding, I thought Jen Psaki was quite adept at her job. She was competent, quick, witty, and often able to make the Biden administration’s myriad failures sound slightly less devastating. Pierre, on the other hand, is rarely able to finish a sentence without referring to her notebook, even when making the most rote and banal of statements. And in some cases, she isn’t even able to put together a coherent sentence while reading directly from her notebook:

As David Marcus noted in a New York Post piece on the topic last September, “say what you will about former press secretary Jen Psaki and her oft-times questionable relationship with the truth, at least when she put words together they made somewhat sensible sentences.” Again, conservatives disliked Psaki for the same reason that progressives disliked Kayleigh McEnany — Psaki and McEnany’s jobs were partisan, making the case for policies, positions, and ideas that the other side of the aisle disagreed with. But Psaki and McEnany both had above-average ability, regardless of the ideological content of what they were saying. Jean-Pierre, somehow, has a below-average ability to do the very basic things her job requires.

Reading pre-written talking points from one’s notepad, with only occasional glances at the reporters — and routinely refusing to answer questions for which there aren’t pre-written answers, as Jean-Pierre has become known for doing — is something that most Americans could do. Indeed most Americans could probably read talking points coherently, which Jean-Pierre often can’t. That’s likely the reason that she frequently brings in backup for some of the basic functions that a press secretary is supposed to provide: 

Jean-Pierre’s constant invocation of the get-out-of-jail-free card — “no comment”; “I don’t have anything for you on that right now”; “let me get back to you”; etc. — has even begun to frustrate the Biden administration’s allies in the mainstream media. Last week, a Washington Post report noted:

Almost from the day news broke that classified documents had turned up in the home and former office of President Biden, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has responded to questions about the matter by essentially not responding.

“I would refer you to the White House Counsel’s Office,” she has said repeatedly.

At Friday’s press briefing, Jean-Pierre invoked the phrase or some variation of it eight times — including in response to a question about whether the White House has done an effective job communicating about the lingering controversy.

As monotonous as it was, it wasn’t even a record. A few days earlier, she fell back on the same response 25 times.

Last I checked, answering questions is more or less the essential purpose of a press secretary. If that’s also the Biden administration’s intent, at this point, it’d be better off abolishing press briefings altogether rather than being subject to these daily embarrassments.