White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre may need some advice from her own book, which she wrote four years ago, as her boss Joe Biden’s re-election chances plummet following a disastrous debate performance.
Biden insiders continue to insist that the 81-year-old president will continue to fight Donald Trump despite the enormous fallout from his disaster in the first debate just five days ago.
Jean-Pierre, who has served in the role since May 2022 after replacing Jen Psaki, is a long-serving figure who has worked for several Democratic politicians in the past.
She has gained so much campaign experience that in 2020, before Biden was elected to his first term, she published a memoir titled ‘Moving Forward.’
The book had a mild resurgence on social media this week, for reasons he may come to regret: an excerpt he used to promote it was titled “What it’s like to work for a doomed presidential candidate.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre may be seeking advice from her four-year-old self as boss Joe Biden’s campaign continues to crumble
Jean-Pierre has gained so much experience in Democratic politics that in 2020, before Biden was elected to his first term, he published a memoir titled ‘Moving Forward’.
Extract from the Hall was published on February 17, 2020, before Biden secured the nomination, between Jean-Pierre’s stints as chief of staff for now-Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed campaign and his work with Biden’s ultimately victorious campaign.
“There is nothing more disheartening than working on a campaign that is dying. The atmosphere is reminiscent of those sad birthday balloons, where the air is slowly deflating,” he writes.
Jean-Pierre spoke about his experiences working for two of the most notoriously disgraced men in Democratic Party history: womanizer, former North Carolina senator and failed presidential candidate John Edwards and former New York congressman and convicted sexual harasser Anthony Weiner.
Weiner’s name has remained in the news over the years, after spending time embroiled in a series of high-profile scandals that doomed his political ambitions and sent him to prison.
The congressman was caught on multiple occasions sending explicit snapshots to various women, including during his political campaigns.
But he did not learn from his mistakes and was later sentenced to 21 months in prison after he began sending sexual messages to a 15-year-old girl.
Jean-Pierre served as Weiner’s press secretary while he was considering a run for mayor of New York City in 2009.
She calls Weiner “one of the most talented politicians I’ve ever known,” but as many have since discovered, incapable of self-control.
Jean-Pierre spoke about his experiences working for two of the most notoriously disgraced men in Democratic Party history: womanizer, former North Carolina senator and failed presidential candidate John Edwards (pictured) and former New York congressman and convicted sexual harasser Anthony Weiner.
Weiner’s name has remained in the news over the years, after spending time embroiled in a series of high-profile scandals that doomed his political ambitions and sent him to prison.
“Jean-Pierre was not bothered by my association with Weiner” and quickly went on to work for Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign.
But he says it taught him not to be easily impressed by his bosses and, when it comes to politics, to “believe in the mission, not the messenger.”
Before working for the man infamously known as “Carlos Danger,” he got his start working for Edwards, who imploded his campaign in one of the biggest Democratic political scandals of the 2000s.
Edwards — who Jean-Pierre correctly notes was once considered “Bill Clinton without baggage” — ran as John Kerry’s running mate in 2004 as a rising star in the party, ultimately losing to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
In 2008, he sought the Democratic presidential nomination, competing against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
He dropped out of the race after The National Enquirer revealed his affair with a member of his campaign staff while his wife, Elizabeth, was battling cancer. Seven months after Elizabeth’s death, Edwards was charged with campaign finance violations.
He was alleged to have funneled nearly $1 million in donations from wealthy socialite Bunny Mellon to his mistress, Rielle Hunter, with whom he had a son.
But after a six-week trial in North Carolina, the jury was deadlocked on five of the six charges he faced. He was acquitted on the sixth, and a year later the federal prosecutors who had pursued him so zealously agreed to dismiss the case.
Jean-Pierre “wasn’t bothered by my association with Weiner” and quickly went on to work for Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign.
Before working for the man infamously known as ‘Carlos Danger,’ he got his start working for Edwards, who imploded his campaign in one of the biggest Democratic political scandals of the 2000s.
Edwards has largely remained out of the public eye since his acquittal in May 2012 on a campaign finance fraud charge.
A federal judge declared a mistrial on five other criminal charges after jurors could not agree on whether Edwards illegally used campaign money to hide his pregnant mistress while running for president in 2008.
Unlike Weiner’s adventure, Jean-Pierre said that “of all the decisions in my career, the one I regret most is having chosen to join John Edwards’ campaign in 2007 instead of Barack Obama’s.”
She said that when Edwards was finishing third in South Carolina in 2008, behind Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, she “couldn’t get out of town fast enough.”
Jean-Pierre reiterates his message of believing in Edwards’ agenda (which he says he still does on most issues) and not the candidate himself.
“You, the volunteer or the staff member, must believe in the politician’s mission, in his goal of changing society, more than in the politician himself,” he concluded.
These are not Jean-Pierre’s only experiences working for a long-shot presidential candidate, as she served as deputy campaign manager during Martin O’Malley’s 2016 campaign, which came in third.
Jean-Pierre was forced to give her own explanation for the president’s poor performance in the debate from the White House podium on Tuesday.
Jean-Pierre was forced to give her own explanation for the president’s poor performance in the debate from the White House podium on Tuesday.
The tense exchanges show how the question of a fading president will overshadow the rest of this year’s election, as nervous Democrats begin to openly call for Biden to step aside.
“We’re not taking away from what you all saw or what the American people saw,” Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“We understand it was a bad night. It’s not unusual for incumbents to have a bad night in their first debate, and we’re going to continue to do the work we’ve been doing on behalf of the American people.”
His answers were met with disbelief in the White House briefing room, as he explained that the president was simply suffering from a cold and had no plans to step aside.
The poor performance has dominated headlines ever since, sparking panic among Democratic donors who fear his campaign is sleepwalking toward disaster.
Questions in the press room about where Biden will be at the end of his second term and about dementia will not help.
Jean-Pierre did his best to end the debate.
He painted a picture of a president busy getting his job done, traveling to Wisconsin later in the week, sitting down for an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and holding a solo news conference next week when NATO leaders are in town.
He also confirmed he was holding a virtual meeting with Democratic governors, but did not answer questions about whether it was designed to offer assurances.