Joe Biden was forced to drop out of 2024 race by Dem ‘firing squad’: Ex-WH press secy Karine Jean-Pierre
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: Karine Jean-Pierre has attacked the Democratic Party leadership for actively participating in forcing former president Joe Biden, 82, out of the 2024 presidential election.
The former White House press secretary rallied behind her ex-boss and slammed the Democratic “firing squad” while speaking at a forum at Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics on Wednesday, February 26.
Karine Jean-Pierre slammed Democratic ‘firing squad’ for forcing Joe Biden to drop out of 2024 race
Just a month after stepping down from her role as White House press secretary, Karine Jeane-Pierre appeared at a talk at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics forum Wednesday, where she insinuated that the Democrats should have had the former president's back instead of attacking him like a “firing squad," The Harvard Crimson reported.
Biden surprised many when he stepped down as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate after a section of the party members privately and publicly urged him not to seek reelection against the then-GOP candidate Donald Trump.
Stating her criticism of the determining move, the former spokesperson said, “I have never seen anything like that,” before adding, “It was truly, truly unfortunate. And I think it hurt us more than folks realized to have done that.”
As reported by The Grio, Biden’s longtime friend and political ally, Rep Nancy Pelosi, D-California, spearheaded a campaign against the former president by pressuring him into stepping down from seeking reelection. Subsequently, the former vice president Kamala Harris secured the nomination and ultimately lost to Trump in the 2024 presidential race.
Despite the criticism surrounding the Biden administration's several policies, Jean-Pierre stood by her former boss, as she admitted, “I believe in what we were trying to get done … I would not have come back into the administration, I don’t think, for anybody else.”
Nevertheless, all Democrats were not unanimously against Biden. Most of the Black Congressional Caucus supported, including Rep Jim Clyburn, D-SC, the former president. He told the outlet just a month before Biden’s exit from the White House, “I think history is going to be very, very kind to Joe Biden.”
Clyburn continued, “Joe Biden is catching a lot of hell from a lot of people today because he’s doing the right thing, and people are using social media to misrepresent what he’s doing, but history is going to be very kind to him because history has got a way of getting beyond style and into substance.”
““He’s displayed more substance than any president in my lifetime, and that ain’t a short period of time,” added the congressman.
Jean-Pierre's statement echoed the thoughts of Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign's chief strategist, Michael C Donilon, who said that the Democrats simply "melted down" after the June debate.
“The Democratic primary voters chose Joe Biden to be the nominee of the Democratic Party,” Donilon said a fortnight ago at the same Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics forum, before adding, “The Democratic party leadership, and the biggest funders in America, didn’t.”
He continued to back Biden, adding, “Lots of people have terrible debates,” and noted, “Usually, the party doesn’t lose its mind. But that’s what happened — it just melted down.”
Karine Jean-Pierre slams Trump admin for taking control of presidential press pool system
Karine Jean-Pierre's appearance at the forum also came after it was announced on Tuesday that the Donald Trump administration would take control of the presidential press pool system, which has been independently controlled by media outlets for decades.
Calling the new stance out, Jean-Pierre said that while the Biden administration attempted to maintain a healthy relationship between the White House and the press, the current scenario is "scary."
The former press secretary, who held the role from 2022 to January 2025, said, “We tried to bring that norm back because we understood how important it was to have the freedom of the press,” before adding, “Even when we didn’t agree with them, it didn’t matter, even when it was contentious in that room.”
“What I am seeing now is scary,” continued the former spokesperson, before musing, “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?”
