Karine Jean-Pierre admits she never believed Kamala Harris could win 2024 election
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's new book 'Independent' reveals her deep doubts about former Vice President Kamala Harris's chances in the 2024 presidential race. Jean-Pierre attributes Harris’s loss not only to sexism but also to what she describes as the Democratic Party’s failure to stand behind her after sidelining former President Joe Biden.
Karine Jean-Pierre didn’t believe Harris could win
In her memoir, Jean-Pierre openly admits that she “never really believed Harris could win.” Her skepticism, she writes, came from a lifetime of experiences as a Black woman confronting “blistering stares and racist assumptions” in public life and within the White House press briefing room.
Jean-Pierre adds, “Harris and so many others had fought and hoped so hard. I wanted to believe. I wanted to believe. But in the end, I was proven right. The United States just wasn’t there yet. Once again, and this time not because of an electoral artifact embedded in the Constitution, we had elected Trump.”
She also reflects that her time in office exposed her to sexism and double standards, which deepened her doubts about Harris’s electability.
Democratic Party failed to support Harris
Beyond social bias, Jean-Pierre lays much of the responsibility for Harris’s defeat on the Democratic Party. She criticizes its “disgraceful display” of “shoving Biden aside” and then failing to unite behind Harris.
Jean-Pierre calls it “deeply disturbing” that the party’s “elders were unable to muster enough know-how to allow an intelligent, accomplished lawyer like Harris to beat an ignorant former reality television celebrity.” She argues that the Democrats failed to “redefine their mission” and instead “publicly tore apart our standard bearers or left their successors dangling in the wind."
Black women deserved better from Democrats
Jean-Pierre also highlights the lack of respect shown toward Harris and, by extension, toward Black women, whom she calls “the ride-or-die foot soldiers of the Democratic Party.” She believes the decision to bypass Harris was a calculated move to avoid a “cage fight with governors and congresspeople jostling to jump the front of the line."
Former President Joe Biden also echoed similar sentiments about sexism, on The View that he was “surprised because they went the sexist route.” He said, “I’ve never seen such a consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman—especially a woman of mixed race—could lead the country."
Meanwhile, Harris has been promoting her own memoir and often refers to the 2024 election as “the closest race of the decade,” asserting that President Donald Trump lacks a real mandate.
