White House denies secret plot to oust Karine Jean-Pierre as Biden faces more bad news

The Biden administration is denying there was a secret internal plot to get rid of White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, a scheme first reported Thursday by The New York Post.

Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates forcefully rejected claims from multiple sources with knowledge of the plans, which included longtime Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn, supported by White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, recruiting prominent outside Democrats to urge Jean-Pierre to voluntarily make her exit.

"Not only are these claims wildly false, but the reality is the polar opposite. 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," Bates told The Post.

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According to The Post's sources, Jean-Pierre's bosses were unhappy with her habit of reading prepared answers directly from her binder, which they viewed as falling short of making an adequate case for President Biden as he prepared to launch his re-election campaign.

"Every press secretary uses the binder. Why is she being singled out?" Bates added.

One of the sources told The Post that the effort included having outside people Jean-Pierre knew and trusted convince her it was the right time to move along, and that it would make sense for her career to leave at around the same tenure as previous secretaries — about a year and a half.

The other source told The Post, "Jeff and Anita were trying to find Karine a graceful exit" in an effort to avoid removing her against her will.

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