When former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began her grift book-selling media tour in June, it was meant to protect the legacy of not just former President Joe Biden but also herself. Even at the time, her reason for writing the tell-all diatribe, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, was weak at best. She maintained then, as she still does today, that she decided to identify as an independent because of the amount of disrespect and cruelty Democrat leadership inflicted on Biden in order to get him to drop out of last year’s presidential race.
What she didn’t bargain for was the Democrat-friendly legacy media grilling her and holding her feet to the fire.
On Monday, Jean-Pierre interviewed with CBS News, appearing on two shows. In the first segment, “CBS Mornings” co-hosts Tony Dokoupil and Gayle King questioned why Jean-Pierre was angry at Democrat leadership and not Biden for not dropping out earlier. Neither one could understand how Biden’s press secretary, who was with the president almost every day, didn’t see his obvious physical and mental decline.
Jean-Pierre deflected and dodged that question like her life depended on it. Yet King didn’t let up, asking Jean-Pierre how she didn’t notice that Biden wasn’t ready for his fateful June 2024 debate, even though she was with him on Air Force One right before and after it. Here is that exchange:
.@tonydokoupil @GayleKing press Karine Jean-Pierre on writing in her new book that she didn’t see Biden declining.
“How?”
Jean-Pierre says she saw him most days and insists Biden was “always engaged.” pic.twitter.com/GgqvWtXu01— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) October 20, 2025
Jean-Pierre replied that she takes this question “very seriously,” adding that she was on Air Force One but didn’t really see or interact with Biden until after the debate. Also, the president was aging but “still engaged.” The most hilarious part was when Jean-Pierre said, “We’ve always said we’re not going to say, ‘Oh, he didn’t age.’ He aged, and he poked fun at it. We’d always owned up. With age comes what happens when you get older.” One of the co-hosts interjected with, “Which is?” Jean-Pierre pressed on, refusing to say the loss of physical and mental faculties.
Jean-Pierre’s continued denial that Biden was in steep decline is asinine. But what recourse does she really have? As John Sexton at Hot Air points out, “It’s really not believable. Jean-Pierre has clearly decided that, given her position seeing Biden up close every day, there’s no way for her to admit what was really going on without killing her own credibility. Is there a moment where she knew something was wrong with Biden? I’d bet there were several but we’re never going to hear about them from this independent.”
Her day did not get better.
On “CBS Mornings Plus,” Jean-Pierre was asked by co-host Kelly O’Grady if she would ever vote Republican now that she identifies as an independent. To which Jean-Pierre answered, “No.” How exactly is she independent then? That much she couldn’t answer.
The ‘CBS Mornings Plus’ interview wrapped with this amazing takedown by @TheKellyOGrady and @TonyDokoupil of KJP’s claim that she’s become an independent….even though she won’t vote for a Republican and won’t vote third party….
O’Grady: “[I]ndependent, you’ve left the party.… pic.twitter.com/jLUl7tImCy
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 20, 2025
Between both shows, Jean-Pierre’s purpose for being interviewed was ripped to shreds. The CBS hosts were actually acting like journalists, and Jean-Pierre floundered — just as she had done so many times before as press secretary. Her crashing and burning wasn’t really a surprise, but CBS acting like a real news outlet and not a partisan propaganda mill was. Maybe Jean-Pierre was the first partisan interviewee to experience the Bari Weiss effect in full.
This week, Jean-Pierre also interviewed with late-night host Stephen Colbert, another Democrat friendly. She started out the interview by claiming her victim status as a black woman and insisting that she was overlooked and taken advantage of by the Democrats.
After letting Jean-Pierre have her moment to plug all the buzzwords, Colbert did not give quarter either. He stated that he was a huge Biden supporter, having helped raise $25 million for the campaign, but that he was shocked by the Biden he saw during the disastrous debate. Jean-Pierre once again stated that this was a question that she “takes very seriously” and that no one said Biden didn’t age. Colbert insisted that he believes the premise of her book is faulty, explaining that he believes the Democrats are shocked and dismayed by Biden’s obvious mental and physical decline and that they believe the White House was lying to them and covering up how badly the president was really doing.
They continued to spar, but in the end, Colbert said he’ll agree to disagree with Jean-Pierre on this matter.
It was a bad week for “independent” Karine Jean-Pierre. Between CBS News and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” her hope of selling more books just dropped.
