Did you know Karine Jean Pierre is the White House’s first openly homosexual, immigrant White House press secretary? It’s something that the White House and Jean-Pierre seemed to be talking about at the time she was named as Jen Psaki’s replacement. Psaki, naturally, has made the move to MSNBC.
But maybe, in all this obsession with identity, the White House ought to have taken the time to ensure that Jean-Pierre was actually qualified for the job. Jean-Pierre is now well known for looking at her notes and repeating lines that aren’t relevant to the question being asked. Jean-Pierre, despite her faults, is a typical middle school student forgetting to complete their homework.
While you might expect to hear a variety of platitudes from a White House press Secretary, Jean-Pierre lacks the skill to pull it off. It’s also painfully obvious. It’s obvious enough that her friends are beginning to notice ..
It’s been a rocky first month for White House press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE.
Her answers puzzled journalists and made White House colleagues squirm. In recent years, she has found herself on the podium with JOHN KIRBY , who is taking charge of foreign policy. At times it appears that she acts as co-press secretary.
And Republicans have zeroed in on her as a useful punching bag.
You have to love that while Politico is admitting the obvious in their write-up, i.e. Jean-Pierre may be objectively terrible at her job but they manage to keep their “Republicans pounce” angle.
Despite such difficult circumstances, her stumbles have left her looking unprepared. In moments she is quickly armed by the right.
She didn’t realize that the Interior Secretary DEB Haarland had been positive for Covid. She also did not know that Biden was with Haaland at a Memorial Day celebration two days prior. “Oh, were they?” she said, to which the reporter pointedly noted pictures of the pair.
And when asked that day about the president telling Naval Academy graduates that he had been appointed to the academy in 1965 — a claim met with skepticism — Jean Pierre said: “I didn’t hear that part of the speech.”
Here is the truth. Jean-Pierre doesn’t appear to be unprepared. She is underprepared. As the excerpt above shows, she is sometimes not fully prepared. As a press secretary how can you not be up-to-date on the speech that President Obama just delivered? When asked about the stock market’s crash, how can you claim that the administration isn’t paying attention? When Biden is asked his opinion on the conflation between inflation and taxes, how can you possibly not be able to give an immediate answer?
Although Jean-Pierre would perform worse if Jean Pierre was not surrounded by compliant media who see their job as protecting the president and her, What if there were a dozen journalists like Peter Doocy in the briefing room instead of one?
Instead, journalists manage to find excuses for what they are ultimately criticizing.
“She’s so determined to not make a mistake, she won’t allow herself to speak naturally,” said another reporter. “A lot of her responses end up becoming… it appears that she’s reading from a page.”
It doesn’t seem like she is reading from a book. She is reading from a page. In her large binder, she brings to the briefing, where she continues to read word-for-word answers to questions that might or may not have any connection to them. Karine Jean Pierre is exactly that. It’s clear she is not an effective press secretary. She would have not been able to get the job she has if the White House had not tried so hard to promote her as another “historical first”.
I want to make it clear that I am not suggesting that a gay, black person cannot be a great press secretary. Rather, I’m suggesting this black, gay person isn’t a good press secretary. This is a clear indication that you shouldn’t hire people based on misguided ideas of equity and diversity. Jean-Pierre is not the problem. The White House made Jean Pierre’s identity the centerpiece. She is not doing a good job at her job.
