Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently compared the Democrat leadership’s pressure on former President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential election to a “firing squad.”
During a panel discussion at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, the former White House press secretary was asked to provide insight into the three weeks between Biden’s disastrous debate last June and his announcement that he would be dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“He was the President of the United States at the time; he was the leader of the Democratic Party. It was truly his decision to make on what he wanted to do, and I supported that 100%. Whatever it was, I was going to support that 100%,” Jean-Pierre said. “Because he had the right to, as the leader of the Democratic Party coming out of a pretty successful midterm. There was supposed to be a red wave; there wasn’t a red wave.”
Jean-Pierre explained that the “toughest thing” she saw in the three weeks prior to Biden dropping out of the race was how the leadership of the Democratic Party “was a firing squad” as top Democrat officials and celebrities placed pressure on Biden to step aside and let someone else run against President Donald Trump.
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“I had never seen anything like it before. I had never seen a party do that in the way that they did, and it was hurtful and sad to see that happening,” Jean-Pierre added. “A firing squad around a person who I believe was a true patriot, a person who I believe did everything that he can for this country. A person who I believe, as I mentioned before, has done more in one term than most presidents had done in two terms, historical things, and I was shocked by what I was seeing.”
In response to a follow-up question from another panelist at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University event, Jean-Pierre said she had “never seen anything like that” and emphasized how “shocking” it was to see leaders in the Democrat Party openly opposing the then-president.
“Instead of coming together to really be unified and trying to figure out how do we save our democracy, how do we fight back, that’s what I was seeing,” Jean-Pierre said. “That’s what we decided to do for three weeks, and, you know, it was truly, truly unfortunate, and I think it hurt us more than I think folks realized, to have done that.”
