Breaking: Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s former press secretary, says she’s now an independent
Karine Jean-Pierre, who served as White House press secretary under former President Joe Biden, has switched her party affiliation to independent, according to a publishing company’s description of her forthcoming book.
Jean-Pierre, who has worked in Democratic politics for decades, is set to release a new book that will discuss Biden’s decision to bow out of the 2024 election and encourage voters to look beyond the two-party political system. The description of her book, titled Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,” says she “didn’t come to her decision to be an Independent lightly.”
The book, which will be released in October, will examine “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,” according to a book description from Legacy Lit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.
That suggests Jean-Pierre’s book may further fuel the intraparty argument over whether Biden should have sought reelection given his age and questions about his mental acuity. Biden dropped out of the race last summer after a disastrous debate performance, making way for former Vice President Kamala Harris, who eventually lost to President Donald Trump.
Jean-Pierre served as the White House’s top spokesperson for more than two years and previously worked for the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign, in the Obama administration and for the progressive organization MoveOn.
She faced criticism at times for her responses to questions about Biden’s health, including in the wake of his debate performance.
“Until January 20, I was responsible for speaking on behalf of the President of the United States. 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,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement to CNN. “We need to be clear-eyed and questioning, rather than blindly loyal and obedient as we may have been in the past.”
I am working with a group of Democrats against Trump's agenda, but I am encouraging them this all of us need to be welcoming of all who work for democracy. Party affiliation is not as important as being advocates for our Democratic Republic.
At this point I feel we are either pro-democracy or anti-democracy. Pro-democracy can and will have a range of party affiliations or no affiliation at all. We absolutely cannot get lost in fighting amongst ourselves as the pro-democracy contingent. That only serves to hasten our slide to autocracy.