Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has publicly denounced the Democratic Party in a powerful new memoir. She explains with great detail that she could no longer stomach her membership in the party. Her deeply personal book reveals the moment her party loyalty shattered completely. This definitive break followed the party’s intense internal pressure on President Joe Biden to exit the presidential race. Jean-Pierre vividly describes receiving the phone call where Biden revealed his final decision. She recalls feeling a powerful combination of both absolute anger and profound sadness simultaneously.
Jean-Pierre writes that she felt genuinely enraged and completely heartbroken by the party’s actions against Biden. She believes the president received consistently poor treatment from his own political allies. This harsh treatment followed more than fifty years of his dedicated service to the American public. She had never once considered leaving the party throughout her entire career before this moment. The Democratic Party had fundamentally defined her entire life and her professional trajectory for many years. Everything she accomplished to improve people’s lives was connected to the party’s platform and its mission.
She acknowledges the party gave her an incredible front-row seat to American history in the making. Also,she worked first on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and later in his administration. She also made her own history as the first Black queer White House press secretary. Her long-standing party loyalty shattered when she saw the pressure on Biden. She compared the internal Democratic efforts to a political firing squad targeting the president. She firmly decided she could not give blind loyalty to a party that acted this way.
Jean-Pierre first announced her decision to become an independent this past June. She revealed her choice publicly while promoting her upcoming book titled “Independent.” Also, she described a cloud of unease solidifying into a concrete idea for her future. She wanted to channel her deep disappointment into a different kind of political action. She seeks to fight for her beliefs without a strict party affiliation now. Her party loyalty shattered over what she perceived as a profound betrayal. This story highlights the significant internal fractures within the Democratic Party following a turbulent election cycle.
