Former Biden White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is breaking ranks with her party — and she’s not holding back. In her upcoming memoir, Independent, Jean-Pierre explains why she decided to walk away from the Democratic Party after decades of loyalty and service.
In an excerpt published by Newsweek, Jean-Pierre recounted the moment President Joe Biden told his team he was dropping out of the race. She described feeling “angry and sad” as she listened to him speak.
“Biden seemed to be totally at peace with his decision, but I was stunned, my feelings a blur,” she wrote. “I was enraged and heartbroken that this man had given more than 50 years of his life to serving the American people, and in the end he’d been treated poorly by members of his own party. It was horrible.”
Jean-Pierre admitted she never expected Biden to step aside. From behind the White House podium, she had long defended his physical and mental sharpness — but his cognitive decline and mounting pressure from Democrats eventually led to his withdrawal.
Still, Jean-Pierre viewed what happened as a betrayal. “The Democratic Party had defined my life, my career,” she said. “Never had I considered leaving the party until now.”
She revealed that she made her decision to become an independent shortly after Biden’s announcement, while preparing for an appearance on The View. “The cloud of unease hovering over me solidified into an idea,” she wrote. “How I could channel my disappointment into some kind of concrete action that would allow me to fight for what I believed in without giving blind loyalty to a party I felt no longer deserved it.”
Her breaking point came when she saw what she described as Democrats turning on Biden. She accused the party of forming a “firing squad” against the president after his shaky debate performance against Donald Trump last summer.
“You know what? I’m going to become an independent,” Jean-Pierre recalled thinking. “I don’t think I can stomach being in the Democratic Party anymore.”
Jean-Pierre officially announced her departure from the party in June, alongside her book announcement. Before serving as press secretary, she had worked on several Democratic presidential campaigns and was a regular political analyst on MSNBC.