Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted she never saw former President Joe Biden's mental acuity deteriorate that led to his poor performance at the 2024 presidential debate, claiming she didn't see him on the way to the venue even though they were on the same plane together.
Jean-Pierre was questioned by hosts Tony Dokoupil and Gayle King on this Monday's episode of the program. CBS Morning about excerpts from her future book, The Independent: A Look Inside the Broken White House, Beyond Party Lines.
Quotes from the book explained her exit from the Democratic Party, with her blame her decision to become independent from other Democrats who treated Biden “badly” as they told him to drop out due to his age and potential cognitive problems, Breitbart News reports.
“Biden seemed completely at peace with his decision, but I was stunned, my feelings were blurred. I was angry and upset. I was angry and heartbroken that this man had given over 50 years of his life to serving the American people, and in the end he was mistreated by members of his own party. It was terrible,” Jean-Pierre wrote.
“You know what? I'm going to be an independent. I don't think I can stand being a member of the Democratic Party anymore,” she added.
Dokupil pressed the former press secretary on the fact that she apparently does not see the signs of Biden's mental decline that are obvious to millions of voters.
“So when this book landed on my desk and I saw in the subtitle 'The Broken White House,' I have to say, I thought you would say that, no matter how hard you tried to convince Joe Biden to drop out of the race – because what we saw is the same thing you saw, and he struggled and couldn't do it – I thought you would say you were angry about it,” the host began. “You said in the book that you were angry at the people who tried to kick him out.”
“Some Americans will say, 'Seriously?'” he said.
Jean-Pierre responded by saying strangers approached her in public and asked why the Democratic Party wasn't “fighting back” before King returned to Docupal's point.
“I want to understand what Tony said because that’s what I thought too,” the co-host said. “You said, people said, why haven't members of his inner circle spoken out about what many see as the obvious decline of Joe Biden, and you said you're a member of the inner circle and you've never seen any decline. After that I wrote, 'How?' You even write, Karin, that you were on a plane with him to the debate and didn't see anything.
“It’s so hard to understand,” King added.
Biden's performance at the June debate was so bad that he even admitted that current President Donald Trump “knocked him off his feet” when donors began support away from his campaign, Breitbart News reported.
Former President ended his campaign in less than a month.
“Well, when we went to the debate on Air Force One, you have to remember that his campaign people were on the team, his family was on the team,” Jean-Pierre told King. “[It] in fact, it was one of those rare trips where I didn’t see him until after the debate, even though I was on the plane.”
She continued: “Really, I want everyone to know that I take this issue incredibly seriously. I do. I was his press secretary in the White House, which meant I had a role that saw him almost every day and traveled with him…”
King intervened, asking, “And you didn’t see anything?”
Jean-Pierre responded: “We always said we weren't going to say, 'Oh, he doesn't age.' He aged and joked about it. We have always recognized this. And with age comes what happens when you get older.”
“Which?” – Dokoupil asked without receiving an answer, and Jean-Pierre continued.
“When we talk about mental acuity – and again, I take this very, very seriously – I've never seen anyone who wasn't there. I've seen someone who was always busy,” she insisted. “I saw a man who understood politics, pushed us towards it, and also understood history.”
Even the establishment media eventually recognized that Biden's team was hiding his weak abilities with Washington Postleft editorial publishing in August 2024: “The 81-year-old showed signs of deterioration for a long time, but his inner circle tried to hide his decline.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris also admitted in her own book that her former running mate's age was “manifesting itself in physical and verbal stumbles” and wondered whether she was “reckless” not to intervene and stop him from running for re-election.
Olivia Rondeau is a political reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter And Instagram.
