Things are so bad for Democrats now that President Biden’s press secretary has quit the party.
Amid dreadful poll numbers and ugly brawls over party leadership, former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is leaving the Democratic Party after serving as one of its chief messengers for years.
Her shock announcement was paired with a sneak preview of her book, coming in October, about her decision to abandon the party and become an independent.
The publisher said the book will provide Ms. Jean-Pierre’s “revelatory assessment of America’s broken two-party system” and detail the three weeks last summer that preceded Mr. Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race and “the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision.”
Mr. Biden, once a moderate, tough-on-crime Democrat who migrated left, was forced out of the race by party elders amid diminishing support in polls and mounting evidence of cognitive decline that was showcased in his incomprehensible June debate performance.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a far-left Democrat who replaced him on the ticket in August, lost definitively to Mr. Trump after a lackluster and directionless campaign performance.
Among her fumbles, she refused to distance herself from even the most unpopular policies implemented by Mr. Biden, including leaving the southern border wide open, letting biological men participate in women’s sports and providing taxpayer-funded sex change operations for convicted murderers.
Democrats have been floundering ever since.
Pollsters say Ms. Jean-Pierre’s departure symbolizes the party’s inability to reconnect with voters.
“Nobody, including President Biden’s minister of propaganda, wants to be a Democrat anymore. Their policies and brand are toxic,” Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin said.
The Democratic National Committee did not respond to an inquiry from The Washington Times.
Polls show Republicans maintain a huge advantage over Democrats on the economy, a key issue that decided the November election for President Trump. In the not-too-distant past, Democrats had a wide advantage over Republicans on the issue.
The Republican Party maintained leads of 8 and 12 percentage points on the economy, according to polls by CNN and Reuters/Ipsos, respectively, despite Mr. Trump’s whipsawed tariff policies and hyped-up warnings from Democrats that the Republican tax cut bill will starve the poor and middle class on behalf of the rich.
The CNN poll found that Democrats and Republicans were tied on which party voters believed best represents the middle class, a title that Democrats once held comfortably.
“How is that possible, Democrats!?” a CNN polling analyst implored.
Ms. Jean-Pierre, who also served as a senior adviser to Mr. Biden, said she has an answer, and it’s not one the Democratic Party will likely embrace.
“I think we need to stop thinking in boxes and think outside of our boxes and not be so partisan,” Ms. Jean-Pierre explained in a video about her decision, posted online Wednesday.
Ms. Jean-Pierre’s tenure at the briefing room podium was marked by frequent sparring with reporters over Mr. Biden’s cognitive decline and her staunch defense of the Biden administration’s left-wing policies.
Four months after leaving the White House, she said she is now part of “the growing fractured electorate that is independent,” said her book publisher, Hachette.
The Democrats have been largely sidelined since Mr. Trump trounced Ms. Harris on Nov. 5 and Republicans took full control of Congress.
They have struggled with messaging and leadership infighting and are engaged in an ideological tug-of-war over the party’s direction.
The DNC was mocked last month over its $20 million, two-year plan to win back young, male voters who abandoned the party for Mr. Trump. According to reports, the plan involves buying ads in video games and studying “the syntax, language and content that gains attention and vitality in these spaces.”
Social media users lampooned a video showing Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, eating a taco and dropping an F-bomb, in a largely failed attempt to troll Mr. Trump on his tariff policy.
Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg, meanwhile, is causing a meltdown inside the party.
The 25-year-old is threatening to use his political action committee, Leaders We Deserve, to oust “asleep at the wheel” incumbents in Democratic primaries in favor of younger and more liberal replacements.
The DNC elders want to throw him out of the leadership. They are set to vote Monday on whether to invalidate his election to vice chair, ostensibly over a procedural issue. The move has further split the party.
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville called Mr. Hogg “a contemptible little twerp,” but top liberal leaders on Capitol Hill warned the DNC against removing the young activist.
“The DNC will prove itself to be irrelevant as a political organization if they punish duly elected leaders like David Hogg because they disagree with him,” said Rep. Marc Pocan, Wisconsin Democrat.
Ms. Jean-Pierre, 50, appeared to be smiling above the fray of her former party Wednesday as she described her new life as an independent.
“In an era of misinformation, disinformation, the regressiveness of social policy, what we’re seeing currently, right now, what I have decided to do, and I really have thought long and hard about this, is to follow my own compass,” she said. “And that’s what I’ve done, and that’s what this book does.”
Her book, “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,” will be available in October.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.