When even the White House press corps notices, you know there’s a problem.
With the principal exception of Fox News Peter Doocy, the “journalists” who’ve spent two years pretending to cover President Joe Biden administration had seemingly mastered the art of ignoring the obvious incompetence of the chief executive and the incompetents around him.
But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre seems to have broken through even with that blinkered bunch.
According to a report Wednesday by CNN’s “Reliable Sources” newsletter — of all places — Biden’s press secretary has managed to alienate even the cheering section in the White House briefing room.
The same stenographers who acted like love-struck chorus girls for former White House press secretary Jen Psaki have never been as entirely rah-rah-and-pom-poms for Jean-Pierre — despite her being the first black press secretary, as well as the first press secretary to be openly lesbian. (You can probably still find “Jen” circled in hearts in press corps notebooks.)
But it’s undeniable the press corps likes her. Since Jean-Pierre took over the job in May, she’s been treated with the kind of kid gloves no press secretary serving, say, former President Donald Trump could have dreamed of.
Jean-Pierre’s mannerisms — like incessantly consulting a binder for answers — and inaccuracies — like actually reading the wrong answer from that same binder — have gone largely unremarked.
Again, with the principal exception of Doocy, who makes a habit of acting like a professional reporter, the press corps has been largely docile.
But amid the scandal over Biden’s squirreled away classified documents, Jean-Pierre has been flatfooted too many times for even the indulgent liberals of the establishment media assigned to cover for the White House.
Is Karine Jean-Pierre the worst press secretary in U.S. history?
Yes: 98% (2066 Votes)
No: 2% (33 Votes)
And, as “Reliable Sources” writer Oliver Darcy records, some are speaking out — albeit with the understanding that their names aren’t used. (God forbid the American public know who’s actually saying what in Washington.)
Even the binders have been noticed.
“You just get the feeling that you’re wasting your time and whatever is in front of her in the binder is all she is going to say, no matter how many times you ask the question,” Darcy wrote that one journalist told him. “It’s just a painful waste of time.”
“She is arguably the least effective White House press secretary of the television era,” Darcy quoted one correspondent as saying.
(Things aren’t utterly insane, though. Darcy made of point of noting that his unnamed interlocutor specifically excluded the Trump White House press secretaries from that comparison. Even a blithering, inept Democratic appointee has to be better than anyone associated with Trump, despite the memorably effective performances in the podium by Kayleigh McEnany and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.)
“In recent days, Jean-Pierre has faced a noticeably vexed White House press corps that is openly revolting against her,” Darcy wrote. “Many of the questions she has fielded have not been about the subject matter, but have centered on her very credibility and how she has performed in the job.”
To an eye unindoctrinated by the bias that infects the establishment media, questions about Jean-Pierre’s credibility were obvious from the outset. Her predictable, amateur partisanship might qualify her for a CNN seat, but not as a spokeswoman to all Americans.
Her occasionally jaw-dropping gaffes make it clear that being a black woman and lesbian are probably her three most relevant qualifications for the job. (Not necessarily in that order.)
But now, the eagle eyes of the nation’s political press are apparently opened to Jean-Pierre’s faults thanks to the classified documents scandal, particularly after Jean-Pierre assured reporters assembled Friday that all the documents that were to be found had been found — only to have the discovery of more announced the very next day.
Even worse, those new documents had been found on Thursday — before Jean-Pierre told reporters there would be no more.
“On Friday, you stood here, though, and were asked about this documents issue, by our count, some 18 times,” Cecilia Vega of ABC News said at Tuesday’s briefing, according to Darcy.
“At that point, the president’s lawyers had found these five additional pages of classified documents. So, did you not know on Friday that those documents had been found when you were at the podium? Or are you being directed by someone to not be forthcoming on this issue?”
Translation: Are you ignorant or a liar?
That’s not a great question for a press secretary. It’s the kind of question the Trump press secretaries had to deal with daily — either explicitly or implicitly — but it’s new here because the liberals of the White House press corps are hard-wired to go soft-and-cuddly with a Democrat.
“She is really liked, personally, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for her competence professionally,” one White House scribe reportedly told Darcy.
Jean-Pierre’s problems are unavoidable, even men and women who are being paid largely to overlook them have to face it: And when the White House press corps notices, you know there’s a problem.
