Karine Jean-Pierre, the former White House press secretary who repeatedly praised Joe Biden's mental acuity, said in March that she doesn't want to "rehash the past." Like many of the things she said from the White House podium, that wasn't true. Jean-Pierre is more than happy to get paid to rehash the past by writing a book hardly anyone is going to read, even if it means leaving the Democratic Party to register as an independent (per the advice of a publicist, no doubt).
Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, due out in October, will deliver a "groundbreaking, revelatory assessment," as well as an "urgent, timely analysis" of the "broken two-party system," fueled by "passionate insight." Jean-Pierre will rehash the past by discussing "the three weeks that led to Biden’s abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision," which suggests she will be one of the last remaining public figures still defending Biden's fitness to serve as president until age 86—contrary to the available evidence (and common sense).
It further suggests that Jean-Pierre, who was widely heralded (by the small percentage of people who care about these things) for being the first black lesbian to serve as White House press secretary, has just made history again as the first known Democrat to abandon the party because its leaders were mean to Joe Biden. It's unclear how she plans to reconcile her accusation of "betrayal" with the assertion that the White House was "broken" on Biden's watch.
Jean-Pierre previewed her defense of the octogenarian president at a Harvard event in February, denouncing the "firing squad" of Democrats demanding his withdrawal from the race after the CNN debate, when Biden bragged about beating Medicare and could barely function. "I've never seen a party do that in the way that they did," she said. "It was hurtful and sad to see that happening, a firing squad around a person who I believe was a true patriot."
The historic press secretary's former colleagues were not impressed with the announcement. "Everyone thinks this is a grift," a former Biden official told Politico, which reported that Jean-Pierre had "informally" consulted a New York-based publicist, Gilda Squire, during the Biden administration and shared official emails with the PR flack, prompting staffers to intervene. Squire and the White House lied and said this wasn't true when asked about it at the time. Jean-Pierre was reportedly hoping to join The View as a cohost after leaving the White House, but The View didn't want her. That's why she is writing the book, her former colleagues said.
The author released a vapid statement on Wednesday explaining her decision to change her party affiliation. "I determined that the danger we face as a country requires freeing ourselves of boxes," she said. "We need to be willing to exercise the ability to think creatively and plan strategically." Whatever that means. The statement exemplifies why Jean-Pierre is widely regarded (by normal Americans) as the worst White House press secretary in modern history. (She is a remarkably historic figure.) Even Politico disparaged her "halting, ineffectual briefings" that "exasperated reporters."
The details of Jean-Pierre's individual journey towards finding a "political space more loyal to personal beliefs than a party affiliation" remain to be seen, but we can confidently predict that her criticisms of the Democratic Party—beyond its betrayal of Biden—will almost exclusively come from a left-wing perspective. She'll probably argue that Democrats are too nice to oligarchs and evil corporations. She will almost certainly fault Democrats for failing to stop the Israeli military from committing "war crimes" in Gaza, echoing the remarks of former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who is also trying to distance himself from the administration he represented.
Before joining the Biden administration in 2021, Jean-Pierre served as Kamala Harris's chief of staff during the 2020 presidential campaign, and was the national spokesperson for MoveOn.Org, the left-wing activist group. In 2018, the Haitian Times named her one of six "Haitian Newsmakers of the Year." She is recently separated from her ex-lover, former CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.
Jean-Pierre, 50, is a decade older than Taylor Lorenz, the esteemed journalist who was recently spotted partying with Girthmasterr, winner of "Best Dick" at the 2025 Pornhub Awards.
