Ex-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Says Biden Forced Out of Race by Democratic ‘Firing Squad’

Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lambasted Democratic leadership for attacking Joe Biden like a “firing squad” at a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics forum Wednesday, saying the party should have united behind the former president.

“I have never seen anything like that,” she said. “It was truly, truly unfortunate. And I think it hurt us more than folks realized to have done that.”

Jean-Pierre attended a discussion with spring IOP fellow Brittany Shepherd and Anoushka Chander ’25 — her first public event since leaving the White House in January.

Jean-Pierre stood by Biden’s achievements, his cognitive fitness, and his decision to run for re-election during the talk. She echoed statements from Michael C. Donilon — a senior advisor to Biden and a current IOP fellow — who defended the former president on the same stage just two weeks ago.

“I believe in what we were trying to get done,” Jean-Pierre said. “I would not have come back into the administration, I don’t think, for anybody else.”

Jean-Pierre served as the White House press secretary from May 2022 to January 2025, and is the first Black person and openly LGBTQ person to hold the position. She credited the Biden administration with restoring a traditional and productive relationship between the press and the White House.

“We tried to bring that norm back, because we understood how important it was to have the freedom of the press,” Jean-Pierre said. “Even when we didn’t agree with them, it didn’t matter, even when it was contentious in that room.”

But President Donald Trump has already taken steps to reverse the Biden administration’s efforts. One day before Jean-Pierre spoke, Trump announced his plan to take control of the White House press pool, hand-picking the small group of reporters given access to the President’s movements.

“What I am seeing now is scary,” Jean-Pierre said. “When you take that away, when you do not do that, then where’s the democracy? Where’s that healthy back-and-forth? Where’s the accountability?”

Jean-Pierre said that over the last month she has “deprogrammed” herself after the stress of her White House responsibilities, which required her to wake up at 4:30 a.m. for four years. Jean-Pierre wrote in a recent Vanity Fair op-ed that she was simultaneously caring for her mother, who was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2023.

“I have not missed it at all,” she said. “It was an honor and a privilege to have the job, to be the White House press secretary, and I would do it again easily, but I don’t miss it.”

Jean-Pierre said the traditional demands of the role were compounded by the pressure to “represent many communities.”

“You have to outperform,” she said. “You have to be better than everybody before you, because you don’t want to be the last. You want people to see you doing the job and say, ‘Oh yeah, okay, we can see someone else who looks like you be in that job.’”

“There were moments where I was like, ‘Okay, can I get up and do this over again? Can I continue to do the job?’” Jean-Pierre added. “And I would always say yes.”

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at elise.spenner@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @EliseSpenner.