Reaction & Commentary
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gave Americans a look behind the podium in a telling Vanity Fair piece published on Tuesday.
Jean-Pierre, who chose to keep her personal life private while working in the Biden-Harris administration, revealed a private health battle that put significant weight on her and her family.
Jean-Pierre recalled attending the Bidens’ first state dinner in December 2022, saying it was “the first time the administration felt a dinner was safe to host since the pandemic began.” That evening Jean-Pierre was accompanied by her mother, who told her that it was “the happiest day of my life.”
The state dinner was the last time Jean-Pierre “recognized my mother as the woman I grew up with.” Unfortunately, things took a turn, and just a couple of months later, her mother was diagnosed with stage II colon cancer. Jean-Pierre found out that her mother was sick while visiting Poland with then-President Joe Biden.
“My mother has always been a private person. When she finally acquiesced to reality, she told me: ‘Don’t tell anyone. Do not tell the president I have cancer,’” the former press secretary wrote.
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Then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 30, 2023. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden was supposedly “one of only a few people at the White House” who knew about what Jean-Pierre’s mother was going through. Jean-Pierre said Biden “showed up for me” during the difficult time.
While navigating her mother’s care alongside her siblings, Jean-Pierre was driving to New York “every weekend I could to see my mom,” only to return late at night to catch “a few hours of sleep” before heading to the White House.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 9, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Despite serving in a very public-facing role in the Biden-Harris administration with her “second full-time job” coordinating her mother’s care, Jean-Pierre explained that being a “private person” is only one of the reasons why she did not make her mom’s cancer battle public. The former press secretary said she was also working under the “weight” of being a “first.”
“I’m the first Black press secretary. The first person of color press secretary. The first openly queer press secretary. The first Haitian American immigrant press secretary. The first press secretary to be all of the above. Being a first meant that my responsibilities were beyond those in the job description, the load heavier. I bear a certain responsibility to the communities I represent,” Jean-Pierre wrote.
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Jean-Pierre also claimed that she believed sharing her mother’s diagnosis would have been seen “as an excuse” because “society doesn’t allow women of color to be vulnerable at work. When you’re a first, you don’t get the benefit of the doubt.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took over the role in May 2022, when Jen Psaki left for MSNBC. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
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During her time in the White House briefing room, Jean-Pierre faced criticism for a series of embarrassing and controversial moments.
In one of her more infamous moments, Jean-Pierre accused the media and others of making “cheap fakes” that made Biden “appear especially frail or mentally confused.” As the American people wondered if the commander in chief was capable of carrying out the duties of his office, Jean-Pierre was gaslighting them by chalking it up to “misinformation” and “disinformation.”
After Biden spoke out against Georgia’s voting laws, dubbing them “Jim Crow 2.0,” Jean-Pierre raised eyebrows with her claim that “high turnout and voter suppression can take place at the same time.”
Jean-Pierre was also tasked with walking back denials of the possibility that the president would pardon his son, Hunter Biden. Once the president issued his son’s pardon, despite repeatedly vowing not to do so, Jean-Pierre explained the pivot by saying that the “circumstances have changed.” She also placed the blame on then-President-elect Trump, saying that the president was trying to protect his son from Republican “retribution.”
In May 2022, Jean-Pierre took over for her predecessor Jen Psaki, who served as Biden’s press secretary for nearly a year and a half. When handing the reins over to Jean-Pierre, Psaki called her successor a “remarkable person” before listing her qualifications for the position.
