WH Reporters Turn On Karine Jean-Pierre: “A painful waste of time, arguably the least effective White House press secretary of the television era”
White House reporters have reached their limit with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and are speaking out to trash her. For an edition of CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter, Oliver Darcy spoke with more than a half dozen members of the White House press corps about Karine.
Darcy says they are frustrated with Karine because she never strays from talking points and provides false information to reporters. “She is arguably the least effective White House press secretary of the television era,” one veteran White House reporter said.
Another said, “You just get the feeling that you’re wasting your time and whatever is in front of her in the binder is all she is going to say, no matter how many times you ask the question. It’s just a painful waste of time.”
Another one said: “I think you can tell the temperature has gone up a lot in the last few days.”
Another reporter said:
“There is the expectation that when you say something, it’s going to be true,” the reporter said. “That’s been the biggest credibility hit for her, it’s answering a question in a way that ends up not being true.”
“She is really liked, personally,” one reporter said, “but that shouldn’t be an excuse for her competence professionally.”
According to CNN:
On Tuesday, for instance, she was repeatedly pressed about why she did not disclose on Friday that more classified documents had been recovered Thursday evening, a significant development that came hours before she indicated to reporters that the search for additional material had concluded.
“On Friday, you stood here, though, and were asked about this documents issue, by our count, some 18 times,” ABC News White House correspondent Cecilia Vega said.
“At that point, the President’s lawyers had found these five additional pages of classified documents. So, did you not know on Friday that those documents had been found when you were at the podium? Or are you being directed by someone to not be forthcoming on this issue?”
Jean-Pierre said she had been “forthcoming on the issue” and reiterated information the White House counsel had previously released in a statement.
“Right,” Vega replied. “And we had that statement, so we knew what was in it.”
Later, NPR correspondent Tamara Keith, who is also president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, asked, “Are you upset that you came out to this podium on Friday with incomplete and inaccurate information? And are you concerned that it affects your credibility up here?”
Q: “Can you tell us if there’s any sort of assessment…to determine if national security has been jeopardized at all?”
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 18, 2023
Karine Jean-Pierre: "That’s for the Department of Justice.”
Q: “Why?”
Jean-Pierre: “It’s not your decision to make on what I can and can’t answer.” pic.twitter.com/9mgCAqIPIj