Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is reflecting on one of the most turbulent chapters in recent Democratic Party history: the internal revolt that forced President Joe Biden to abandon his re-election bid in 2024.
Speaking at an event hosted by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, Jean-Pierre described the coordinated effort among top Democrats to remove Biden from the ticket after his disastrous debate performance last June. She called the episode “shocking,” “hurtful,” and unlike anything she had seen in American politics.
A President Under Pressure
Biden, then still in office and leader of the Democratic Party, had faced intense backlash after stumbling through the June debate. Within days, whispers of doubt among Democratic lawmakers, donors, and strategists turned into public calls for him to step aside. By July, the pressure campaign was undeniable.
Jean-Pierre defended Biden’s right to make his own decision. “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%,” she said. She added that Biden had overseen a surprisingly strong midterm cycle and accomplished “more in one term than most presidents have done in two.”
The “Firing Squad”
But the real pain, Jean-Pierre said, came not from Republicans but from within her own party. She described the weeks after the debate as a “firing squad” against Biden, echoing the words of her former colleague Ben Labolt.
“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,” she recalled. “A firing squad around a person who I believe was a true patriot … I was shocked by what I was seeing.”
Instead of rallying together to face Donald Trump’s Republican Party, Jean-Pierre argued that Democrats fractured at a critical moment. “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,” she said.
Fallout and Oversight Scrutiny
The Democratic split ultimately cost Biden his re-election campaign. Under pressure, he announced his withdrawal, leaving the party scrambling for a new nominee against Trump. Now, with Trump back in the White House just 100 days into his second term, Democrats are still picking up the pieces.
Meanwhile, Republicans are ramping up investigations into Biden’s final year in office, focusing heavily on his fitness to serve. The House Oversight Committee has summoned four top Biden officials, including Jean-Pierre herself, to testify about what they call a cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline.
The committee argues that Biden’s aides misled the public and the press about his condition. “They fed these false talking points to progressive allies and the media, who helped perpetuate that President Biden was fit to serve,” Oversight leaders said in a statement. “As part of our investigation into the cover-up of his cognitive decline and potentially unauthorized executive actions, we must hear from those who aided and abetted this farce.”
Others called include Jeff Zients, Biden’s final White House chief of staff; Andrew Bates, deputy press secretary under Jean-Pierre; and Ian Sams, a spokesperson in the White House counsel’s office.
Earlier this week, the committee questioned Neera Tanden, Biden’s former domestic policy advisor, who was authorized to use the president’s autopen on official documents. Her testimony raised new questions about how decisions were being transmitted from Biden during his final months in office.
Writing a New Chapter
Jean-Pierre, who is currently working on a book about her time in the Biden White House, continues to argue that Biden’s record was historic and unfairly overshadowed by questions about his age. She insists that the party undermined itself by tearing down its own leader rather than uniting against Trump.
“It was truly, truly unfortunate, and I think it hurt us more than folks realized,” she said of the 2024 turmoil.
The episode underscores the internal conflicts Democrats still face: balancing loyalty to Biden’s legacy while preparing for a post-Biden political future. As Jean-Pierre frames it, the party’s “firing squad” may not only have cut down its sitting president but also weakened its ability to challenge Trump’s resurgence.
