Why Biden’s White House Press Secretary Is Leaving the Democratic Party

Karine Jean-Pierre feels that Democrats were so mean to Biden that she is becoming an Independent.

By Isaac Chotiner

October 27, 2025

In a new book, “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,” the former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre describes what she considers a betrayal of Joe Biden by the Democratic Party. “I watched Democratic leadership abandon, and in the end betray, a man who’d led our country through a pandemic and a time of historic political turmoil,” she writes. Indeed, Jean-Pierre is so outraged by the often unnamed Democratic establishmentarians who maneuvered to push Biden to step aside as the Presidential nominee, during the summer of 2024, in the wake of his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, that she has decided to leave the Democratic Party and become a political Independent. (Jean-Pierre, who served for more than two years in her role, which consisted of defending the Administration to the press and explaining its policies, also blames the Democratic Party because it “couldn’t articulate the achievements of the Biden/Harris administration well enough.”) Before her time in the White House, Jean-Pierre worked for Kamala Harris’s 2020 Vice-Presidential campaign; she was the first openly gay and first Black White House press secretary.

I recently spoke by phone with Jean-Pierre. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why she believes Biden should have stayed on as the candidate in 2024, her surprising feelings about Kamala Harris, and whether Biden was getting accurate information about the state of his campaign against Trump.

You feel like you had to leave the Democratic Party because of the way it treated Joe Biden. How did it treat Joe Biden?

I call it a betrayal. And the reason I say this, and I really want people to understand my perspective and where I come from and the role that I played in those three weeks—from the debate to the President deciding that he was no longer going to be at the top of the ticket and handing over the baton—is that I was the person who was standing on that podium behind that lectern, having to take in all the hard questions on this. Rightfully so. And I was watching what Democratic leadership was doing. It was an all-out, full-on campaign to embarrass him, to push him out. And I just thought to myself, Wow, you don’t have that much time left this election year. And I thought to myself, This man is one of the most decent people that I know. And objectively, objectively, it was a good Presidency. Some have even said he did more in one term than most Presidents do in two. So I just didn’t understand why this was happening.

You lay out very clearly why you think Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. And, at the same time, you are suggesting that what happened in those three weeks was so serious that you had to leave the Democratic Party, even at this moment of grave threat. You said that the Party was trying to undermine Biden. What do you think they were doing and why?

Well, I mean, I just laid it out. I just said that there was an obvious campaign. You just had to watch.

Sure, but why were they doing that?

Because they believed that he needed to step aside. There’s more to this than just that period of time. This is very layered, right? There’s a period of time that I questioned what was happening and how do we treat our own, how do we treat people who are decent people? And then you also have to think about how I’m thinking about this as a Black woman who is part of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and living in this time where I also don’t think Democrats right now, Democrats’ leadership, is protecting vulnerable people in the way that it should.

Sorry, I’m not trying to be dense. I’m a little unclear about what this has to do with Democratic leaders and many Democrats in the country thinking that Joe Biden was going to lose to Donald Trump—which was what the polls all showed—and therefore thinking that he should be replaced.

O.K., wait a minute. Hold on a second. Nobody knows anything. Nobody knows what would’ve happened. People also thought that if you replace Joe Biden we were going to win, or have a better chance of winning. Millions of people who showed up in 2020 didn’t show up in 2024. We can’t forget that there was an incumbency issue as well. This is real. There are, like, several G-10 countries with incumbents who did not get reëlected. There was an incumbency issue as well.

I’m not sure what you’re saying.

No, no, no. Wait a minute. You are saying that this was their thinking, and they were kind of predicting. But nobody knew what was going to happen. Nobody knew that Joe Biden was going to win in 2020. Nobody knew what was going to happen in 2024. People believed in their hearts that Kamala was going to win. They believed it. They saw the polling and they thought she was going to win, looking at the polling. Nobody knew anything. I’m only bringing up the polls because you brought up the polls to me.

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You said you were speaking as a Black woman who’s part of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and I think people were very—

I’m talking about in this moment, too. I do not feel seen in the Party because I think they’re throwing the L.G.B.T.Q. community under the bus. They’re not fighting enough for migrants and immigrants. You have to be a big-tent party. You have to fight for everyone.

I’m just still trying to understand. You argue that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. A lot of people thought that Biden was not the best person to go up against Trump in the summer of 2024—after his debate, with his approval ratings in the basement. Shouldn’t those people have tried to give Democrats the best chance to replace Trump? You’re talking about Biden like loyalty was owed to him. Isn’t loyalty owed to the country?

No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m not talking about that. I’m saying that this is not how you treat somebody.

Is this a matter of how you treat someone, or a matter of putting the country first?

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Treating somebody with dignity is not the same as loyalty. I mean, the way he was treated, I had never . . . if you had seen something like that in the Democratic Party, please, please, point that out.

So what was an example of the way he was treated?

I mean, it was nasty articles that were coming out daily. You should go back and see for yourself. You’re writing the articles, right? You should go back and see for yourself. It was a campaign. It was even reported that it was a campaign.

So you think asking him to step aside was O.K., but there shouldn’t have been nasty articles?

Look, what I am saying is it shouldn’t have happened that way.

But it should have happened, or shouldn’t have happened?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I don’t think it should have happened. I believe that we should have done everything that we could, regardless of who was at the top of the ticket, and fought extremely hard. He was the one at the top of the ticket, and so, therefore, I believe we should have fought to make sure that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won. That’s what I believed.

When he decided to run in 2023, we have to also remember what was happening at that moment. There was no red wave in the midterms. Matter of fact, the President and the Vice-President did better than any incumbent President in their first midterm. Polling was saying that it was going to be a red wave.

The polling was pretty accurate in 2022, but go on.

Well, O.K., but remember it was reported that there would be a red wave.

You are right, there was a lot of talk of a red wave.

So there was no red wave. He was an incumbent, and he was the only person to have beaten Donald Trump. Those were the things that were true and in front of him, and he was being encouraged by Democrats in the leadership to run.

So you have no concern, even to this day, that Joe Biden could serve as President through January, 2029?

I did not see anything that would’ve given me concern.

But you watched TV like the rest of us, right?

I always couch it with this: of course, he was older. Of course, he was aging. He mentioned it. He talked about not speaking as well as he used to. He talked about not walking as well as he used to. No one is saying that he didn’t age, but he is someone that I engaged with. I saw him every single day as his White House press secretary, and he was someone that was engaged, on top of policy, challenging his staff.

One could conceivably think that he could do the job through January, 2025, but that it was not wise to think he could do the job through January, 2029, right?

It’s not my place to say.

What do you mean it’s not your place to say?

No, no, no. Wait, I’m answering the question. I did not see anything that would cause me concern. That is my answer.

Except the debate, and the other things that everyone saw?

What I’m saying to you is the debate for me was one time. I had never seen him like that before.

You write in the book, “He was just as defiant in his interview with [George] Stephanopoulos, though some nameless Democrats criticized that appearance too, saying it failed to ease their concerns.” This interview occurred after the debate, but before he dropped out. I went back and watched that interview. This was one answer he gave: “I, uh—I prepared what I usually would do, sitting down as I did, come back with foreign leaders or National Security Council for explicit detail. And I realized about partway through that, you know, all—I get quoted the New York Times had me down, at ten points before the debate, nine now, or whatever the hell it is. The fact of the matter is, that what I looked at is that he also lied twenty-eight times. I couldn’t, I mean, the way the debate ran, not—my fault, no one else’s fault—no one else’s fault.” When I watched that, I thought, This man should not be President for four more years. It doesn’t mean I think Donald Trump should be President, but I’m a little surprised that you don’t see what so many people, including so many Democrats, saw.

I’m not the only person who feels this. I’m just the one speaking very loudly. I’m the person who’s saying the quiet thing out loud.

There’s a silent minority of people out there who feel that Biden was taken advantage of, and most people don’t want to say it. Is that what you mean?

Let me just say, this is my experience that I’m speaking to, and what I saw. I just want to be very, very clear: on average. I just want to be clear: on average. Not from one interview, not from one debate. On average. I have heard from many, many people who were disappointed by the reaction of the Democratic Party. I have. I have. And these are citizens. These are people who vote.

Biden also said in that interview, about him being down significantly in polls, “That’s not what our polls show . . . All the pollsters I talk to tell me it’s a tossup. It’s a tossup.” Apparently, Nancy Pelosi was concerned that Biden was not getting accurate information about what his polls against Trump showed. Was it a concern of yours that Biden was not getting accurate information about the state of the race?

I was not involved in the campaign or any of the politics of it. I know that they had internal polling that was available to him that he was getting from his pollster. So I can’t speak to that. I really can’t. I didn’t see what he was getting. I didn’t see the polls he was talking about.

I think that did concern people, though, that he seemed out of touch with where the race was.

Look, that is one thing that I can’t speak to.

One thing in your book I was not expecting was that after Harris took over, you say you thought it was “an insult to [her]” that people wanted an open convention or didn’t want to have her be the nominee. Can you talk about that?

Yeah. I mean, look, you have to understand, I’m speaking also as a Black woman and what I experienced myself as being a first. This is not just me. There are many Black women who feel this. We are the backbone of the Party. We are on the front lines, and when it comes time to elevate us, or hear us, acknowledge our voice, we are largely ignored. And so the thinking was, Wait a minute, she’s the Vice-President. She’s more than qualified to be President. She was on the ballot in the primary with Joe Biden. Why wouldn’t she be the most qualified to do this? It’s almost like they didn’t want her. And so you have to understand the lens that I see that with, right? I feel that very viscerally, as do many in the Black community, and among Black women.

I definitely thought that there was sexism and racism that Harris experienced during the campaign, and certainly before the campaign, too. But, when I talked to people about whether Harris should be the nominee or there should be an open convention, I found people split. And one reason some people thought that Harris should not be the nominee is that they did not think she could win, which is why I was surprised to read in your book, a little later on, that “the truth was, I never really believed Harris could win.” That’s why I’m a little confused when you say it was an insult to try to get her off the ticket.

But two things should be true, right? The thing that I say the second time actually proves the thing that I said the first time, right? Because it’s a feeling that we have. The reason I felt that is because of how we’re treated as Black women. We’re not elevated, we’re not protected, we’re not taken seriously. She was the Vice-President for heaven’s sake. But the reality of it is that being a Black woman, being Black and being a woman, it’s just tough. It’s hard. It makes it harder. And she ran a fantastic campaign, but it wasn’t good enough for some people. That is heartbreaking.

Shouldn’t you extend the same generosity to other people, who didn’t think she could win or that she was the best candidate?

This is a book about my experience.

It’s also attacking people with other opinions.

Yeah, but I have every right to talk about my experience and my perspective. That’s not taking away from others.

Many people who did not think she could win wanted to replace her on the ticket because they thought beating Donald Trump was the most important thing for America, for any number of reasons having to do with race, foreign policy, whatever else, and that it was imperative to win the election. So what I was confused by was you saying that you didn’t think Harris could win, but then you attack other people who didn’t seem to think Harris could win by saying they were insulting her.

Yes. Well, again, I wish you could walk in my body and live my life, and then I think you could understand what I’m saying. I really do, because I think any other Black woman would understand what I’m saying. What it truly is is that it wasn’t just an open primary or a brokered convention. There was disrespect to her as well. It was discounting her and her position and who she was. That’s what it felt like. This is a very unique thing that I don’t think anyone would understand unless you walked in our bodies and lived our lives. My feeling was not about her not being qualified. It was about people not being able to see past her being Black and a woman. It’s not that confusing for us because we live this life day in and day out.

I’m not trying to discount what you’re saying about Harris, but Biden is not an L.G.B.T.Q. Black woman, and you have the same feelings about how he was treated. This is what you keep going back to in the book. Sometimes I worry about losing sight of the fact that we’re dealing with a Presidential election here, and the feelings of Joe Biden are less important than the fate of the country.

You’re telling me about the feelings of Joe Biden, blah, blah, blah, but Joe Biden is out of the picture. He’s out of the picture.

Yeah, he sure is.

He’s out of the picture now and we lost.

This is what you wrote your book about. I am not bringing this up randomly.

No, I know, but you just said that to me. Right? So I’m just responding to it. He’s out of the picture. He stepped down, he’s out of the picture, and we lost. The book for me is really about the moment that we’re in. When I talk about the broken White House in the subtitle, I’m talking about the Trump White House. So what are the Democratic leadership actually doing to beat back and fight back? What are they doing?

I’m not here to answer for the Democratic leadership. I would—

You’ve been answering for the Democratic leadership. [Laughs.] You were giving me their answers.

I didn’t talk to anyone in Democratic leadership. I was just trying to remember how I and others felt watching Joe Biden in those weeks, that it felt like he was too old to be President for another four years, and too old to win.

And here’s the thing: That’s your experience. That’s the experience that you had. ♦

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5791275&forum_id=2#49385016)

when will her PR folks tell her to stop doing these interviews?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5791275&forum_id=2#49385071)

also love her Phil Hendrie skit come to life “as a gay man and a gay journalist”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5791275&forum_id=2#49385116)

and then the White House realized that the MSM wasn't going to push the issue that an obviously incompetent and lying woman was the spokesperson. there was no cost at all for that. so she rode out the term.

now, of course, the MSM has no present political use for her and are finally treating her as they should have all along.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5791275&forum_id=2#49385396)

I think even Doocy was afraid to press her too much

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5791275&forum_id=2#49385412)

You’re telling me about the feelings of Joe Biden, blah, blah, blah, but Joe Biden had breakfast. He had breakfast.

Yeah, he sure did.

We all had breakfast now and we aren't hungry.

This is what you wrote your book about. I am not bringing this up randomly.

No, I know, but you just said that to me. Right? So I’m just responding to it. He's not hungry. He had breakfast, and now he's full.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5791275&forum_id=2#49385565)