The job of a White House Press Secretary is to "gather information about actions and events within the administration of the President of the United States" and in turn "act as a spokesperson" for the executive to the media.
Karine Jean-Pierre -current Press Secretary of the Biden Administration- became the spokesperson who almost always has "nothing to say about it" or who has "no comment" on the issues she is asked about in her daily press conferences. Her answers without "sensible" arguments make even the media that favor her administration uncomfortable.
Criticized for her blunders
In Voz Media we have previously reported that Jean-Pierre was being criticized for her lack of efficiency and her blunders. Since she has been the White House spokesperson -May 13, 2022- she has made journalists ask their questions multiple times and repeatedly rephrase in search of an answer to resolve their doubts.
A typical example of this situation occurred on October 19, 2022. Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy recalled two statements by President Biden about what his administration's priority is: one statement says it is inflation, but another says it is abortion. In which statement is Biden not telling the truth, Doocy asks. Jean-Pierre cannot find a way to answer satisfactorily:
On another occasion, she was forced to admit that she didn't understand one of the questions.
REPORTER: "Does president Biden want more migrants to come to Delaware?"
KJP: "I don't even understand that question. I'll move on." pic.twitter.com/0GmshZGf3E
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 19, 2022
A few days later, Jean-Pierre had some trouble naming the infrastructure that carries Russian gas to Europe. Instead of saying "North Stream 1", the press secretary named the Nordstrom 1 clothing store chain.
Jean-Pierre: “one of the things that has been out there…they shut down the pipeline of Nordstrom 1” pic.twitter.com/CQJVSM5EdK
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 6, 2022
Jean-Pierre gives same answer 25 times
Last week, a Washington Post article highlighted how - in a single press conference - Jean-Pierre repeated the same phrase about eight times to answer various questions to reporters about the news of classified official documents found in President Biden's home and former office.
The Post noted that the secretary responded to questions about the matter by, "basically not answering." And she repeatedly replied:
I refer you to the White House Counsel's Office.
Jean-Pierre resorted to this phrase or some variation of it, including in response to a question about whether the White House had done an "effective" job of communicating about the controversy, which has nothing to do with the White House counsel.
However, "as monotonous as it was, it wasn't even a record. A few days earlier, she repeated the same answer 25 times," the Post concluded.
The secretary is "lousy at her job"
For Nate Hochman, a National Review journalist, Jean-Pierre is a press secretary who is "lousy at her job." The journalist alleged that the current spokesperson has many points in her favor for simply being of "Democratic" tendency, which makes the media not so hard on her.
However, he expounds that despite the advantages because of her ideology, Jean-Pierre "is rarely able to finish a sentence without looking at her notebook, even when she makes the most routine and banal statements. And in some cases, she is not even able to put together a coherent sentence while reading directly from her notebook:"
I’ve made this point before, but this isn’t even a political/partisan/ideological point. Karine Jean-Pierre is just extremely bad at her job, and regularly makes the Biden administration’s life more difficult as a result https://t.co/Y1nKhSMVGt
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) February 7, 2023
Hochman compared Jean-Pierre to her predecessor Jen Psaki whom he described as "quite adept at her job:
“She was competent, quick, resourceful and often able to make the Biden Administration's myriad failures seem slightly less devastating.”
The journalist asserted that if the Biden Administration's intention was to give Americans answers about the actions they execute, "it would be better to abolish press conferences altogether rather than subject themselves to these daily embarrassments" caused by Jean-Pierre's poor ability.
Jean-Pierre vs. Psaki
In a New York Post article from September 2022, journalist David Marcus posited that Psaki and "her often questionable relationship with the truth, at least when she put words together, formed somewhat sensible sentences." And that despite having "above-average ability," her work was criticized by progressives for being a "partisan mouthpiece, advocating policies, positions and ideas with which the other side of the aisle disagreed."
In contrast, Jean-Pierre "has a below-average ability to do the basic things her job requires." This is probably why she often calls in reinforcements for some of the basic functions a press secretary is expected to perform.
Make that 26 out of 39 White House press briefings under Karine Jean-Pierre's tenure in which she needs a special guest to siphon off time from her inept tenure at the podium. https://t.co/lhmBZgFdWK pic.twitter.com/UdmUO5jMNV
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 1, 2022
