Former Biden administration Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been slammed after announcing she’s leaving the Democratic party and writing a tell-all book about her time inside the “broken” White House.
On Wednesday, Jean-Pierre, who served as both press secretary and a senior Biden advisor, announced the October 21 publication of Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, using the occasion to reveal she had left the party after serving in the two past Democratic administrations.
Publisher’s notes said the book would feature “provocative evidence as an insider” and detail “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.”
“In an era of misinformation, disinformation, the regressiveness of social policy, what we’re seeing currently, what I have decided to do, and I really have thought long and hard about this, is to follow my own compass,” Jean-Pierre said in a video statement on Instagram.
Critics laid into Jean-Pierre, pointing to her former role as a staunch defender of the White House, including against allegations that President Biden was in mental decline, which Jean-Pierre repeatedly dismissed.
In a post on X, conservative activist Charlie Kirk accused Jean-Pierre of trying to “trick everybody into forgetting the central role she played in perpetuating the Biden cover-up.”
Her former colleagues in the White House and Democratic party also savaged the move, arguing that keeping Biden off the ticket was not a “betrayal” but rather a key move that kept Democrats from further losses in Congress, cementing their ability to at least partially impede Trump cuts to liberal priorities.
“People will literally die because of Republican Medicaid cuts. Kids will go hungry because of SNAP cuts,” former Biden official Caitlin Legacki told Politico. “The only reason we stand a chance to reduce the harm inflicted is the Democratic Party did the right thing here. It’s completely nuts to be more upset that the Party didn’t prioritize Joe Biden’s ego and keep him on the ticket than to thank god we averted complete and total disaster.”
A Democratic operative, meanwhile, told the outlet the book and party change was “the most grift-y thing I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s saying something in Washington.”
The Independent has contacted Jean-Pierre for comment.
Jean-Pierre isn’t the only high-profile staffer to distance themselves from the Biden administration in recent days.
On Monday, former State Department spokesman Matt Miller, often the face of the Biden administration’s defense of Israel during its ongoing war with Hamas, admitted in an interview with Sky News that he believed the U.S. ally had committed war crimes.
“I don’t think it’s a genocide, but I think the — I think it is, without a doubt, true that Israel has committed war crimes,” he said, adding, “When you’re at the podium, you’re not expressing your personal opinion. You’re expressing the conclusions of the United States government.”
The torrent of bad press follows the May release of Original Sin, from CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, in which former officials, including cabinet members, described what they said was an extensive attempt to conceal the president’s mental and physical decline from the public and members of government.
Biden and his family members have pushed back against the claims in the book.
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