- Karin Jean-Pierre will take over as White House spokesman, Biden announced on Thursday.
- Jean-Pierre will be the first black and openly gay White House spokesman in US history.
- The Haitian-American immigrant worked for the presidential campaigns of Obama and Harris.
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Karin Jean-Pierre will go down in history in the coming weeks as the first black man and the first openly gay man to serve as White House spokeswoman, but she has left her mark in Washington, D.C., for years.
President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that Jean-Pierre, the current deputy spokesman for the White House, will take over after Jen Psaki retired on May 13 to take a job at MSNBC.
Jean-Pierre has worked for former President Barack Obama and the Biden-Harris presidential campaign and has taught at Columbia University as a lecturer. Jean-Pierre was also a “top candidate” who was considered for the role of press secretary last year, but the work eventually went to Psaki.
An immigrant from the West Indies with Haitian roots
Jean-Pierre was born in 1977 on the island of Martinique to parents in Haiti. She later grew up in the Queens neighborhood of New York after moving there at the age of five.
Jean-Pierre talks about how her parents – her father is a taxi driver and her mother is a health assistant – and her immigrant background have inspired her policy.
“Growing up in an immigrant household really defined me. He taught me to work hard, “she told her family in an interview with MoveOn.
Jean-Pierre also said that when she told her parents that she would work for then-President Obama, her parents told her she was “changing the world”.
She received her bachelor’s degree from the New York Institute of Technology in 1997 and then graduated from Columbia University in 2003 with a master’s degree in public affairs.
She has worked in politics and is proud
The 44-year-old appeared as a 16-year-old lesbian and wrote about the experience on Twitter.
“I went out with my mother when I was 16,” writes Jean-Pierre. “The disgusted expression on her face made me run back to the proverbial closet and slam the door. After that, my sexuality became a family secret and would remain so for years.
Jean-Pierre said her mother eventually showed up and was “proud” of her.
She is raising a daughter, Soleil, with CNN correspondent Susan Malvo.
Jean-Pierre also talks about how her gender and sexuality have influenced her career in what she calls the Boys’ Club, in her memoirs Moving Forward: A Story of Hope, Hard Work, and America’s Promise. “
She is “everything Donald Trump hates”
Jean-Pierre has been open to criticism of former President Donald Trump, including his application of a travel ban to Muslim-majority countries.
“I’m everything Donald Trump hates,” Jean-Pierre said in 2018. I’m a black woman. I’m gay. I am a mother. Both my parents were born in Haiti and came here for the American dream. “
In 2018, after Trump called a handful of countries “countries of holes”, Jean-Pierre called him during a speech at the University of Michigan, saying she was tired of his “beating with immigrants” and “homophobia.”
“The president of the United States called the land of my ancestors, the land of my inheritance, the land of my parents, a hole. And ironically, 24 hours after making these racist remarks, he signed a proclamation in honor of Dr. the king. ”
From Obama to Harris, she has almost 20 years of experience
Jean-Pierre began his career at the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics. Throughout her career, she has worked for ACLU, as a political analyst for MSNBC and NBC, as Chief Public Relations Officer at MoveOn, and as a lecturer at Columbia University.
She also has a career immersed in politics. She has worked on a number of presidential campaigns, including Martin O’Malley, Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris. She also served in the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Obama administration.
As Biden’s deputy spokeswoman, she became the first openly gay and the second black woman to ever hold a press briefing at the White House in May 2021.
“I think if you are passionate about what you want to be or where you want to go and work very hard for that, that will happen,” Jean-Pierre said at a news briefing on Thursday, announcing her promotion. “And, yes, you will be overthrown and you will have some difficult moments. And it will not be easy all the time, but the rewards are pretty amazing, especially if you stay true to yourself.”
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