“Ka-ringe Jean-Pierre.”: Reviews Are Not Good For Befuddled GOP “Punching Bag,” Press Secretary

Townhall

The reviews are in for the new White House press secretary, and they’re not good. Politico ran a story headlined, “Karine Jean-Pierre’s tough debut: Unforced stumbles and press corps grumbles.”

Reporters Max Tani, Alex Thompson, and Allie Bice wrote that “it’s been a rocky first month” for Jean-Pierre, so bad that she’s already “increasingly found herself sharing the podium or splitting briefings with John Kirby,” who appears to be a “co-press secretary.”

“Some Black communications officials in and outside the administration” complained the White House “has set her up to fail” by having Kirby “hovering nearby and taking the lead on foreign policy.”

Worse yet, she’s become a GOP “punching bag,” and “her stumbles in several instances have made her appear underprepared — in moments quickly weaponized by the right.” Radio host Vince Coglianese calls her “Ka-ringe Jean-Pierre.”

Anyone who tunes in to the briefings can see it. She’s woefully underprepared. She’s like the Kamala Harris of press secretaries. Being a pioneering example of diversity in hiring only takes you so far.

For example, President Joe Biden (too typically) boasted to Naval Academy graduates at their commencement in May that “I was appointed to the Academy in 1965 by a senator who I was running against in 1972.” The New York Post found no evidence, but Politico could only describe it as “a claim met with skepticism.”

When questioned about this, Jean-Pierre replied, “I didn’t hear that part of the speech.” It was the second sentence of his speech if you don’t count “hello.”

Politico stipulated that press secretaries can’t possibly know every detail of breaking news, but they studied the pattern: “In her first 10 briefings as press secretary, Jean-Pierre said she didn’t have the information being sought 20-plus times more than predecessor Jen Psaki in her first 10 briefings, according to a review of the transcripts.”

The briefings are so bad and so devoid of news that attendance might suffer. “At a certain point it wouldn’t surprise me if people started voting with their feet,” one White House reporter said.

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