Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has left the Democratic Party after working for two Democratic presidents and a career of toeing the party line, most notably while also defending former President Joe Biden amid his obvious cognitive decline.
News about Jean-Pierre’s party affiliation broke with the listing of her new memoir, “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,” online. The Barnes & Noble description of the book reveals that Jean-Pierre has become an independent.
“In a country obsessed with blind loyalty to a two-party democratic system, Karine Jean-Pierre, former White House press secretary to the Biden-Harris administration, shares why Americans must step beyond party lines to embrace life as Independents,” the description begins.
“Jean-Pierre didn’t come to her decision to be an Independent lightly. She has served two American presidents, Obama and Biden,” it continues.
In the book, Jean-Pierre “urges Americans to think outside of the blue-and-red box as we consider what’s next to save our democracy,” the description says.
Former President Biden promoted Jean-Pierre into the press secretary role in May 2022, and from then until the end of his term, Jean-Pierre served as Biden’s foremost apologist and defender.
Jean-Pierre repeatedly dismissed questions over Biden’s physical and mental health. In July 2024, after Biden withdrew from the presidential race following his disastrous debate performance, Jean-Pierre flatly denied that there was a “cover-up” to hide the president’s frailty from the public.
“There’s been no cover up. I want to be very clear about that,” said Jean-Pierre.
The former press secretary was unsparingly critical of outlets that questioned Biden’s fitness for office, especially if those outlets were right-of-center. Asked earlier in July, before Biden exited the race, if she regretted pushing back so hard against questions about Biden’s health, Jean-Pierre responded: “not at all.”
“Let me be clear, it was a certain part of the media – you can speak to this better than I can – it was a certain part of the media which was doing this,” said Jean-Pierre while talking to a Fox News reporter. “At the end of the day, they’re fakes. That what they were, targeting the president.”
“I don’t regret it at all. It was just the facts,” she said.
CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson recently released a book, “Original Sin,” that implicates the Biden White House in a cover-up of the president’s health in the book’s subtitle: “President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.”
Tapper and Thompson detail that for at least 18 months prior to the 2024 election, Biden’s inner circle and top aides at the White House strategized on how to keep the ailing president from being scrutinized too closely. The ailing president’s decline was so serious aides discussed getting the president a wheelchair if he won reelection.
Many Americans were already skeptical of Biden’s health. In September 2023, a CNN poll found that “[r]oughly three-quarters of Americans say they’re seriously concerned that Biden’s age might negatively affect his current level of physical and mental competence (73%), and his ability to serve out another full term if reelected (76%).”
Throughout the campaign and Biden’s final days, Jean-Pierre defended the president against questions over his health.
Last month, Biden revealed that he has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. The diagnosis raised fresh questions about the former president’s health, his fitness for office, and who knew what about his health during his time as president.
A spokesperson for the former president said Biden’s last cancer screening was more than a decade ago in 2014, as a way of explaining how the former president’s cancer was missed until last month.
In her new book, Jean-Pierre appears ready to defend her record as Biden’s chief defender over questions about his health. The book’s description on Barnes & Noble suggests that Jean-Pierre believes that Biden’s run for reelection failed because of “betrayal” by the Democratic Party.
“In 2020, she joined Biden’s campaign as a senior adviser, 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,” the description says.
