Karine Jean-Pierre made history in the White House briefing room last year as the second black woman to address a formal news conference, and the first in 30 years.
Now Jean-Pierre will continue to make history by taking over as White House press secretary, President Joe Biden announced on May 5. She previously served as White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary under Jen Psaki, was Vice President Kamala Harris’s chief of staff during the 2020 campaign, and led several press briefings and “groups” on Air Force One.
Ms. Jean-Pierre will take up the new position on May 13.
Born in Martinique to Haitian parents, Ms. Jean-Pierre has also made history as the first gay black woman in various roles, including chief of staff to a vice-presidential candidate. She joined a history-making White House communications team that is all-female.
Prior to joining the Joe Biden presidential campaign, Ms. Jean-Pierre organized the John Edwards campaign in 2004 and the Barack Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012. She also served as regional political director for the Office of Political Affairs of the White House during Obama’s first term in office.
During the 2016 campaigns, she served as a senior adviser and national spokesperson for MoveOn, formally MoveOn.org, a progressive advocacy group that joined then-candidate Bernie Sanders in mobilizing protests against Donald Trump.
She was seen as the most likely successor to Ms. Psaki, who won the White House chief press secretary job over Symone Sanders, the Biden campaign’s top spokeswoman who would go on to work for Vice President Kamala Harris and then leave the White House. management. Ms. Jean-Pierre and Ms. Psaki were sidelined by Covid earlier this year, prompting White House communications director Kate Bedingfield to temporarily take over.
“As a black gay immigrant who comes from a working-class family, I know that America hasn’t always worked for everyone,” he said. out of the magazine in 2020. “And I know America still doesn’t work for everyone. The truth of the matter is that we have a long way to go. But that is what I am working for: to mobilize people around this shared vision of what an America that works for everyone could look like, and then make it happen.”
Writing on Twitter, Ms Psaki, who is expected to accept a position at MSNBC hosting a show on NBC’s Peacock streaming service, called her future successor a “remarkable woman” with “decades of experience from her earliest years working in government and politics in [New York City]to her years as an outspoken advocate, to serving as a longtime adviser to [Mr Biden] when I was vice president.
“She is passionate. She is smart and has a moral core that makes her not only a great colleague, but an amazing mother and human being. Also, she has a great sense of humor,” she added.