White House Denies Secret Plan to Oust Karine Jean-Pierre

The White House is pushing back on a report from the New York Post that top Biden administration aides plotted to oust Karine Jean Pierre (KJP) by finding her a graceful exit.

According to the Post, KJP’s superiors were frustrated with her habit of reading canned answers from a binder to reporters, and lack of policy knowledge - but they knew they couldn’t fire her because of the optics of firing the “first black and first lesbian” press secretary. Such are the challenges when you don't hire based on merit. Instead, they worked on trying to help her “move on” from the position.

According to Fox:

The Biden administration is denying that there was a secret internal plot to get rid of White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, a scheme first reported Thursday by the New York Post.

Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates forcefully rejected claims from multiple sources with knowledge of the plans, which included longtime Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn, supported by White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, recruiting prominent outside Democrats to urge Jean-Pierre to voluntarily make her exit. 

"Not only are these claims wildly false, but the reality is the polar opposite. Karine was never approached by anyone with such a message. She spends four hours preparing every day. And neither Jeff nor Anita did any such thing; both have been unflinchingly supportive of her," Bates told the Post.

If KJP is legitimately putting in four hours of daily prep work, it only puts her performance in an even worse light. If Bates is lying about that, it’s hardly the only thing he’s lying about. Steve Doocy revealed during a Fox and Friends episode that there was small talk during the White House Correspondents Dinner about the story, and that “a White House official, a very high-ranking person, told me that the story was absolutely true. They would like her to step aside, but she just won't go.”