Joe Biden’s former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has left the Democratic Party to become an independent, she revealed Wednesday.
And she is set to release a new book promising to spill the tea on the “betrayal” that led to Joe Biden withdrawing from the 2024 election.
As allegations that Biden staffers covering up his cognitive decline continue to swirl, Jean-Pierre has switched party affiliations, according to Legacy Lit publishers, which will publish her new book, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, on October 21.
U.S. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre holds the daily press briefing in a newly refurbished briefing room at the White House in Washington, U.S. July 24, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters“Jean-Pierre didn’t come to her decision to be an independent lightly,” says the book description released on Wednesday.
“She has served two American presidents, Obama and Biden. In 2020, she joined Biden‘s campaign as a senior advisor, becoming Harris‘s chief of staff, and then, two years later, White House Press secretary. She takes us through 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.”
Jean-Pierre was the first Black and first openly LGBTQ person hired as White House Press Secretary.
She was chosen for the job in mid-2022, after working as a deputy to Biden’s first press secretary, Jen Psaki, and served in the role until Biden’s exit from office in January.
But her time at the podium was often spent defending Biden’s fitness for office.
At a White House press briefing just days after Biden withdrew from his re-election campaign, Jean-Pierre sparred with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy - a regular occurrence in the briefing room - when he suggested that party figures and many in the media had covered up the president’s cognitive decline until it wasn’t possible anymore.
“First of all, there’s been no cover-up,” she told reporters. “I want to be very clear about that.”
Jean-Pierre has kept a relatively low profile since leaving the White House.
On Tuesday, she was on stage in New York alongside friends Leisha Hailey and Kate Moennig, stars of the hit lesbian series The L Word, as they launched their new book, So Gay For You.
And later this month, she will be one of the grand marshals of New York Pride alongside TV personality Michelle Visage, transgender activists Miss Major and Raquel Willis, and GLAAD executive DaShawn Usher.
Her book promises to be a “hard hitting, yet hopeful critique” that “urges Americans to think outside the red-and-blue box as we consider what’s next to save democracy.”
“Until January 20, I was responsible for speaking on behalf of the President of the United States,” she said in a statement released Wednesday.
“At noon on that day, I became a private citizen who, like all Americans and many of our allies around the world, had to contend with what was to come next for our country.
“I determined that the danger we face as a country requires freeing ourselves of boxes. We need to be willing to exercise the ability to think creatively and plan strategically.”
Some of her former colleagues didn’t seem impressed with news of the book.
Jeremy Edwards, a former staffer in the Biden White House, wrote a succinct response on X: “lol”.
