Journalists and aides to President Biden are seething over White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s refusal to let a national security expert discuss the tentative Israel-Hamas cease-fire at her final briefing Wednesday — deeming the occasion her “goodbye party.”
The press secretary’s spotlight-stealing forced the nation to wait an extra hour to learn details of the American hostages being released, including their names — with Jean-Pierre herself providing no new information at her 306th and last briefing and referring reporters to a National Security Council call that got underway after she left the stage.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan personally asked for his top spokesman, John Kirby — a former press secretary at both the Pentagon and State Department — to take the lectern moments after Biden announced the long-sought deal and cast it as a signature achievement of his team.
Sullivan made the request of White House chief of staff Jeff Zients — but Jean-Pierre refused to allow it, citing her own prearranged plans to celebrate herself, two sources told The Post.
“She basically said it was her goodbye party,” one person recounted.
“She kinda marketed it as a celebration of her and her tenure and unfortunately that took precedence over huge breaking news — and we haven’t had this kind of news in this administration for a long time.”
Jean-Pierre spent 51 minutes skirting details about the looming end of the war in Gaza, as exasperated journalists waited to learn the names of two US citizens who are set to be released in the first wave of prisoner exchanges as early as Sunday.
A handful of former press office aides looked on, including Jean-Pierre’s predecessor Jen Psaki, giving the gathering the feel of a family reunion as Jean-Pierre, the first non-white and first openly LGBT press secretary, became emotional talking about her tenure.
An indignant journalist told The Post they spotted expensive bottles of champagne, including Veuve Clicquot, on Jean-Pierre’s West Wing desk after the briefing — apparently for a boozy staff sendoff, though the press secretary herself does not drink.
“I thought at the last minute she would just break and say, ‘OK, fine, [Kirby] can just come at the top and he can leave, and then I can wax poetic about my time here, and then I don’t really even have to answer any questions and be grilled on anything,'” the first source said.
“But she really wanted to make a point that the briefing room was ‘hers.’ And so that’s why she pushed so much, and in the end, she feels like she won, and I guess she kind of did.
“She looks silly, and God help her in whatever she does next, but in this personal battle that she’s had with [former White House communications chief] Anita [Dunn] and Kirby for the entirety of her time in the press briefing room, I know that she considers it a win.”
The press corps and West Wing staff have been well aware of Jean-Pierre’s prickly feelings toward Kirby, whom she regards as a rival due in part to his authoritative role speaking on the Middle East war — and his free admission that he’d be interested in capping his career with a stint as White House press secretary.
Dunn, who departed the Biden White House last year, attempted to coax Jean-Pierre into leaving her position in late 2023, viewing her as a frequently unprepared and ineloquent spokesperson for Biden’s re-election bid and enlisting outside Democrats to nudge her out the door.
Kirby was, at the time, widely viewed as Jean-Pierre’s successor-in-waiting due to his steady performance helming White House briefings on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“Not allowing actual news to be delivered from the podium on such an important day for the president and the world for your own ego is disgraceful,” a longtime Biden aide told The Post of Jean-Pierre’s antics.
“I am not sure there is someone that did more damage to the president’s reputation than her — it is really sad.”
A second outraged reporter who attended Wednesday’s briefing said it was “totally unsurprising behavior from someone who was either incapable of recognizing her own shortcomings or unwilling or unable to put in the work required to overcome them.”
Since Dunn departed the White House, Zients has taken the lead in managing the briefing room rivalry between Jean-Pierre and Kirby, who has appeared less frequently in that time.
One source told The Post that Zients — a successful businessman known for bringing West Wing staff bagels on Wednesday and pizza on Fridays, manning a margarita machine in his office and declaring “jeans day” when Biden is out of town — was intimidated by the situation.
Jean-Pierre has at times threatened to call in powerful allies, such as the Rev. Al Sharpton, to back her up, this person said, explaining: “It gets kind of scary for someone like Jeff, who is a white man, who is like, ‘I don’t want this kind of smoke.’
“She’s thrown some serious temper tantrums over this kind of stuff … and when Anita left, there was no way Jeff was going to have the negotiating skill to bring both of these people to the table and to muscle Kirby back into that briefing room.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates didn’t deny that Sullivan asked for Kirby to join the briefing, saying: “Like Karine said in the briefing, the administration chose to have an on-record call with Brett McGurk because he was on the ground and could provide firsthand details to the press.”
A National Security Council spokesman did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
