No matter who is in the White House, it is important that the people have at least a modicum of trust in their president. That is not currently the case for President Joe Biden, whom two-thirds of adults already distrust.
Unfortunately, Biden’s choice of Karine Jean-Pierre to be his next press secretary will only make it harder for voters to have any faith that anything his White House says is true.
Almost all press secretaries come from partisan backgrounds with campaign experience. Jean-Pierre’s predecessor, Jen Psaki, who is moving on to MSNBC, worked on President Barack Obama’s campaign, for example. Jean-Pierre is no different, and no one should fault her for that.
What is troubling about Jean-Pierre’s record is her well-established pattern of spreading disinformation about the most important topics of the day.
Before Donald Trump was even sworn into office, Jean-Pierre falsely claimed he was an illegitimate president who had stolen the 2016 election. “Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election … welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump,” she tweeted in December 2016.
Switch out “Trump” for “Biden,” and the exact same tweet would have gotten her kicked off Twitter in 2021 for spreading disinformation about the 2020 election.
Two years later, Jean-Pierre was at it again, this time spreading lies about Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Any reasonable person should have known that Julie Swetnick’s stories about Kavanaugh drugging and gang-raping women in high school were outrageously false. But Jean-Pierre fell for Swetnick’s con hook, line, and sinker. “Julie Swetnick, 3rd Brett Kavanaugh accuser tells @nbc that he was a 'very mean drunk,'” Jean-Pierre tweeted, later adding, “Brett Kavanaugh should not be coaching girls basketball.”
What a despicable attempt to assassinate a man’s character.
Switching back to false election claims, Jean-Pierre also eagerly embraced the conspiracy theory that the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election was stolen. "Reminder: Brian Kemp stole the gubernatorial election from Georgians and Stacey Abrams,” Jean-Pierre tweeted at the time.
As this publication has editorialized before, Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen undermines public confidence in elections and is bad for democracy. Claims from Democrats like Jean-Pierre that the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election were stolen are equally false and equally harmful.
Biden would look weak and confused if he were to rescind his decision to have Jean-Pierre be his next press secretary. But if Jean-Pierre wants to have any credibility with the voters at all, she should begin her tenure by admitting she was wrong about the 2016 and 2018 elections, and she should apologize.
She should admit that she was wrong about Justice Kavanaugh and apologize to him as well.
No one is perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. But in order to reestablish trust in a divided nation, public officials must first have the courage to admit when they are wrong. Hopefully, Jean-Pierre has the integrity to follow this path.