Karine Jean-Pierre promoted to Biden senior advisor: “Her counsel will be critical”

Karine Jean-Pierre can add a new title to her resume: senior advisor to the president.

On Monday, ABC News reported that the White House Press Secretary had been promoted to the position in the Biden administration. Jean-Pierre, the first Black woman and first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as White House Press Secretary, will also continue in her current role through the end of President Joe Biden’s term.

Related:

Karine Jean-Pierre taunts Fox reporter with joke about his “ridiculous” question about Kamala Harris

She didn’t forget his “insane” question about Kamala Harris’ accent.

“Karine has been a trusted advisor to the President and all of us here at the White House since day one,” White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said. “Her counsel will be critical to get as much done as possible for the American people in the coming months.”

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Jean-Pierre replaced former Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki in 2022. Before that, she served as deputy press secretary under Psaki and was Vice President Kamala Harris’s chief of staff during her 2020 presidential run. She also worked on former President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

In a 2022 statement, Biden said that he and First Lady Jill Biden had “known and respected Karine a long time and she will be a strong voice speaking for me and this Administration.”

A White House official told ABC News this week that Jean-Pierre’s promotion shows the president’s faith in her, as well as his commitment to having diverse and intergenerational voices guiding him in his decisions. 

It should also put to bed once and for all rumors reported by the New York Post earlier this year that the Biden administration had grown displeased with Jean-Pierre’s performance and was looking to replace her.

In April, the Post quoted multiple unnamed White House staffers who said the administration had been trying to convince Jean-Pierre to step down and that both Zients and Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn supported the effort to oust her.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates, called the rumors “wildly false.”

“The reality is the polar opposite,” Bates said at the time. “Karine was never approached by anyone with such a message. She spends four hours preparing every day. And neither Jeff nor Anita did any such thing; both have been unflinchingly supportive of her.” He also questioned why Jean-Pierre, the first Black woman and first out queer person to serve as White House Press Secretary, was being singled out for criticism.

Zients, meanwhile, said in a statement that “the president and everyone in the White House deeply values Karine — she is an incredibly talented communicator and trusted advisor who keeps a cool head in any crisis and always has your back.”

“We are lucky to have her on the core team advancing the president’s historic agenda every day,” Zients added.

“It’s not lost on me what my presence at the podium behind that lectern means,” Jean-Pierre told The Advocate in an April interview. “Being a first in many different ways, I’m an immigrant, I’m a queer Black woman, a person of color, and it is incredibly a heavy weight that I understand is important to carry with respect and understanding.”

“Representation matters and it is important to have that representation,” she added, “but showing up also matters. Showing up for myself, showing up for my colleagues, showing up for little boys and girls, young people who are trying to figure out who they are and looking at me and saying, well, maybe I can do this even if they feel unsafe.”

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