Karine Jean-Pierre, the former White House press secretary under President Joe Biden, has formally cut ties with the Democratic Party.
Jean-Pierre has declared herself an Independent ahead of the release of her highly anticipated political memoir.
The announcement was quietly revealed in the publisher’s description of her upcoming book, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, set to be released this October by Legacy Lit, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group.
Jean-Pierre, a longtime Democratic operative and the first Black and openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as White House press secretary, is expected to use her memoir to examine Biden’s dramatic exit from the 2024 presidential race—and offer a scathing critique of party leadership that she says abandoned its own candidate.
“She didn’t come to her decision to be an Independent lightly,” reads the publisher’s description, signaling a dramatic shift from her decades of loyalty to Democratic politics.
Inside Biden’s Exit
According to the book’s summary, Jean-Pierre will detail “the three weeks that led to Biden’s abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision.” President Biden withdrew from the 2024 race last summer following a widely criticized debate performance, which intensified concerns about his age and mental acuity. His departure ultimately cleared the path for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who later lost the general election to Donald Trump.
Jean-Pierre’s tenure as the White House’s top spokesperson spanned more than two years. Before that, she served as a senior adviser to the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign, in the Obama administration, and with progressive groups like MoveOn.org. Throughout her time in the press briefing room, Jean-Pierre often faced intense scrutiny, particularly regarding her handling of questions about Biden’s health.
“No Longer Blindly Loyal”
In a statement to CNN, Jean-Pierre emphasized the need for accountability and independent thinking in U.S. politics:
“Until January 20, I was responsible for speaking on behalf of the President of the United States. At noon on that day, I became a private citizen who, like all Americans and many of our allies around the world, had to contend with what was to come next for our country,” she said.
“We need to be clear-eyed and questioning, rather than blindly loyal and obedient as we may have been in the past.”
Her public break from the Democratic Party is likely to intensify existing intraparty tensions, especially among Democrats still divided over Biden’s 2024 run and the party’s messaging in the post-Trump era.
With Independent, Jean-Pierre appears poised to push a national conversation about political reform, including a rejection of blind party loyalty and a call to reconsider the country’s dependence on the two-party system.
