White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is facing mockery after a claim she made about what prevents her from spreading the administration’s messaging.
During an event on Monday, Jean-Pierre said, “When I address the press, from the White House podium, the only thing that stands between me and getting our message out to the American public is whether the people sitting in those chairs and the folks watching at home feel like they can trust me, feel like the information that I am providing is worthy for them.”
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Her comments come as Jean-Pierre has faced criticism externally, and reportedly from her colleague, over her job performance. In April, The New York Post reported that certain White House staffers disappointed with Jean-Pierre’s performance were plotting ways to push her out of the job.
However, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told the Post: “Not only are these claims wildly false, but the reality is the polar opposite. Karine was never approached by anyone with such a message. She spends four hours preparing every day. And neither Jeff nor Anita did any such thing; both have been unflinchingly supportive of her.”
“Every press secretary uses the binder. Why is she being singled out?” he asked.
According to the Post’s report, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and the “de facto White House communications chief” Anita Dunn were trying to “find Karine a graceful exit” in the fall.
A source told the paper, “There was an effort to have some outside folks who Karine knows and trusts talk to her about why leaving last fall would have made a lot of sense for her and her career.”
They noted Jean-Pierre “had been in the job for a year and a half at that point, which is a pretty standard tenure for a press secretary in what is admittedly a very demanding job [and] Jeff and Anita [tried] to have folks that she would listen to and trust talk to her about why it might be wise to do that.”
However, there were concerns about the optics of removing Jean-Pierre — who has labeled herself a “historic figure” as the first Black and first gay person to hold the job — from the position.
