White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre wrapped up her longest run behind the briefing podium this week, an unofficial audition for the top job.
But Jean-Pierre substituting for press secretary Jen Psaki coincides with complaints that both women have been overlooking the briefing room’s back rows of reporters.
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Jean-Pierre appeared to grow in confidence over the course of the four consecutive White House briefings during which she filled in for Psaki, bringing her total to eight. Psaki had been working from home after a family member contracted COVID-19. The development sidelined her from President Joe Biden’s second foreign trip the morning of his departure, Jean-Pierre stepping in at the last minute.
“The challenge of that role, as demonstrated in the last few weeks, is you can be asked to brief at a moment’s notice,” former White House spokesman Eric Schultz told the Washington Examiner.
Schultz, an alumnus of President Barack Obama’s White House, believed Jean-Pierre, who became the second black woman and first openly gay woman to brief in May, was “strong.”
“She obviously enjoys the confidence of the president, has a long relationship with the team, and is effective on television,” he said of the former Biden campaign adviser who was now-Vice President Kamala Harris’s chief of staff and TV pundit as a representative of liberal political action committee MoveOn.org.
“She’s made history in her own right and always communicates with heart — a practice that can oftentimes be overlooked in Washington,” Schultz added.
Michigan University debate coach Aaron Kall predicted Jean-Pierre would be the front-runner to replace Psaki, who this summer downplayed her spring comments to fellow Obama alumni David Axelrod that she would consider resigning from the White House “in a year from now or about a year from now.”
“These additional opportunities and more public role over the last several weeks have been invaluable experience, as practice and repetition in front of the White House lectern is the best way to improve in this crucial and historic role,” Kall said. “She’s a solid public speaker, well measured, and clearly benefits from her previous work.”
But Kall conceded some of Jean-Pierre’s exchanges with Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy exposed her policy weaknesses. Jean-Pierre had to clarify her U.S.-Canadian Line 5 pipeline remarks the following day.
“No matter who the White House press secretary is, disagreements with reporters like Doocy are inevitable and even contributes to the theater and spectacle of these events,” Kall said. “This proud tradition has gone on for decades, including Sam Donaldson and Helen Thomas.”
Before Psaki’s absence, Jean-Pierre had been notching White House briefing minutes by “gaggling” with reporters on Air Force One during domestic presidential trips. The more informal question and answer sessions tend to be truncated because of time constraints, especially if they are delayed until shortly before landing. And of the 37 gaggles the administration has organized since inauguration, Jean-Pierre has hosted 20.
During her maiden White House gaggle in March, Jean-Pierre described Alaska as “U.S. foreign soil.” Two months later she misstated the administration’s position regarding Ukrainian NATO membership.
“You support Ukraine joining NATO?” a journalist asked en route to Los Angeles in May.
The White House transcript strikes through Jean-Pierre’s initial reaction, “I’m saying Ukr — yeah. Yeah. In the — like I said.”
“The Biden administration is committed to ensuring that NATO’s door remains open to aspirants when they are ready and able to meet the commitments,” it adds on the record.
But Jean-Pierre’s mistakes were minimal during her more recent outings at the White House, and she became less reliant on her thick briefing book. She did, though, accidentally call Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan a “secretary,” said supply chain kinks were causing “lower” rather than “slower ” deliveries, claimed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal would address the issue “to generate” and not “for generations” to come,” and used the word “votality” instead of “volatility.”
For political commentator Joshua Scacco, the hallmark of a good White House press secretary is that they do not create their own news cycle, an accomplishment Jean-Pierre achieved — with the exception of her awkward encounter with Doocy.
“Jean-Pierre continued Psaki’s approach of prioritizing clear administration messaging that is a source for journalists’ stories while not making the briefings themselves a central story,” the University of South Florida communications associate professor said.
Jean-Pierre’s temporary tenure did exacerbate tensions in the White House briefing room that she and Psaki spend a disproportionate amount of time responding to questions from the front rows of reporters, dominated by the major TV networks and wire news services.
“Question from the fifth row, please!” one journalist shouted this week. The next day, another grumbled, “You forgot half the room!”
Psaki referred to reporter frustrations during her return White House briefing Friday after quarantining following her own COVID-19 diagnosis, the administration’s highest-profile breakthrough case to date.
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“I just want to skip around because I know we’re not getting to enough people in the back. So I hear,” she said. “Let’s go all the way in the back,” she repeated later.
