Karine Jean-Pierre, who served as a White House press secretary under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., is leaving the Democratic Party and becoming an independent, according to the publisher of her forthcoming book.
She is expected to write about “the betrayal by the Democratic Party” that led to Mr. Biden’s decision to abandon his re-election bid, according to a description of the book from Legacy Lit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. Some former Biden administration officials and other Democrats quickly criticized Ms. Jean-Pierre for seeming to side with the former president in her characterization of the tumultuous weeks in which Democrats tried to pressure Mr. Biden to step aside.
Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Commerce Department in the Biden administration, wrote on X that it was more “productive” to focus on former Vice President Kamala Harris’s saving Democrats from losing 400 electoral votes “and thank Biden for doing the responsible thing by stepping aside, than it is to pretend this was an unwarranted act of betrayal.”
As press secretary, Ms. Jean-Pierre participated in contentious back-and-forth press briefings with reporters last year over Mr. Biden’s age and mental acuity as the White House tried to deflect criticism and downplay voters’ concerns.
The Democratic Party has been facing a lengthy period of soul-searching after Ms. Harris’s loss to President Trump in November. After an election where voters reported feeling Democrats were no longer speaking to the working class and had ignored their concerns about Mr. Biden’s age, some surveys have found that the party is more unpopular than it has been in decades.
The description of the book, titled “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines” and due in October, says Ms. Jean-Pierre will offer “clear arguments and provocative evidence as an insider” about the importance of dismantling misinformation. She will also argue that it “can be worthwhile to carve a political space more loyal to personal beliefs than a party affiliation,” the description says.
“I think we need to stop thinking in boxes, and think outside of our boxes, and not be so partisan,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said in a video posted to her Instagram on Wednesday promoting the book. She did not respond to a request for comment.
Other Democrats criticized Ms. Jean-Pierre’s party defection.
Jonathan Kott, a longtime aide to Joe Manchin III, the former West Virginia senator who left the Democratic Party last year, said he was “sick and tired of Democrats not being proud to be Democrats and fighting for what we believe in.”
“If you lost the will to fight, then get out of the party,” he added.
Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting.
Kellen Browning is a Times political reporter based in San Francisco.
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