News of a possible internal plot to remove White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was a moment of excitation for the conservative media, especially the New York Post and Fox News. But such a plot was denied by the Biden administration and White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates. “Not only are these claims wildly false, the reality is the polar opposite,” Bates told the press. “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.”
Bates was referring to White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Biden’s senior adviser Anita Dunn, who allegedly were recruiting notable Democrats to urge Jean-Pierre to resign.
The Post’s sources said that Jean-Pierre’s bosses were unhappy with her habit of reading prepared answers directly from her binder, which they viewed as an inadequate response from Biden, who is in the midst of a re-election campaign.
“Every press secretary uses the binder,” Bates said. “Why is she being singled out?”
The origin of what appears to be just another dose of “fake news” is not clear, but was bolstered to some extent by Steve Doocy of Fox News, who said a “very high ranking person…told [him] that the story was absolutely true. They would like her to step aside, but she just won’t go”
It seems incredible that the Biden administration would even consider such a critical change at this moment, when Biden is fighting for his political life, if not for democracy itself. Ousting Jean-Pierre, the first Black and openly gay person to hold the position of press secretary, would be doubly disastrous.
A message to her various online accounts was not answered as this issue of the Amsterdam News went to press.