Karine Jean-Pierre writes in her new book that she left the Democratic Party because its leaders treated Joe Biden so badly.
Shortly after the election, we learned that outgoing White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was working on a book entitled, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines.
(As I observed at the time, we’re getting a “tell all” book from the one White House official whose job is to inform the public about what the president is doing and how he’s doing.)
Now we learn, via Newsweek, that the issue that drove Jean-Pierre from the Democratic Party was . . . the party was just too mean to Joe Biden by pressuring him to not run for another term:
I never thought Biden would step down. The way the Democratic leadership was coming after him, I believed he would fight back harder. He was the descendant of Irish immigrants and someone who held firm to his convictions. He’d never let them win, I thought. He’d never step down even though the attacks on him were ugly and cruel. He would double down. “I know I have COVID,” he’d say, “but know that though I’m going to be out of the game for a little bit, I’m in this. I’m not going anywhere.” He’d thank the team and encourage us to continue doing what we’re doing.
On the call, Biden seemed to be totally at peace with his decision, but I was stunned, my feelings a blur. I was angry and sad. I was enraged and heartbroken that this man had given more than 50 years of his life to serving the American people, and in the end he’d been treated poorly by members of his own party. It was horrible. . . .
“You know what? I’m going to become an independent. I don’t think I can stomach being in the Democratic Party anymore.”
So in the end, what Jean-Pierre found utterly unacceptable about the modern Democratic Party was not any of its particular policy stances, its philosophy, its view of the government and its role to the people. No, the straw that broke the camel’s back was that the party didn’t believe that 81-year-old Joe Biden, who had turned in the worst debate performance by a president ever, and who consistently trailed Trump both nationally and in the key swing states, should remain the nominee.
Apparently, Jean-Pierre believed that the Democratic Party was morally obligated to continue into the 2024 election with a candidate that just about everyone in the world outside of the Biden family and the White House could see was absolutely doomed, and not able to effectively campaign for himself. In one of his last televised interviews as the nominee, Biden couldn’t remember the name of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and called him “the black man.”
Now, as you’ll recall, during an appearance on CNN in June 2022, Karine Jean-Pierre assured the American public that Joe Biden had so much energy, she couldn’t keep up with him. She insisted that the notion that Biden’s age would be an issue in his reelection campaign was “fallacious.” In November 2023 that she would put President Biden’s stamina up against anyone’s. (We later learned that Biden never finished one of his practice debate sessions.) During a bird flu outbreak, Jean-Pierre boasted that she was vegetarian. At least seven times, she insisted that Joe Biden would never pardon Hunter Biden.
But she has her standards!