Top 10 Reasons Why Right Wing Media Hate Karine Jean-Pierre

By Kevin Howley, September 19, 2022

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn’t pull any punches when she recently compared Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — the Tweedledee and Tweedledum of the Trump successor sweepstakes— to human traffickers for their abusive treatment of asylum seekers.

Unless you’ve been sleepwalking through the summer news cycle — and who can blame you —you know all too well of Abbott and DeSantis’s theatre of cruelty; for months they’ve been transporting asylum seekers from their states to so-called sanctuary cities and other high-profile destinations, such as Martha’s Vineyard and Vice President Kamala Harris’s San Francisco home, to score cheap political points with the MAGA faithful.

“These are the kinds of tactics we see from smugglers in places like Mexico and Guatemala,” Jean-Pierreobserved. “And for what? A photo-op? Because these Governors care [more ]about creating political theater than creating actual solutions to help folks who are fleeing communism, to help children, to help families. Instead, they want to do political stunts.”

Calling out homegrown “semi-fascists” for human rights abuse shouldn’t be part of the press secretary’s job description. But the awful truth is that petty cruelty is a hallmark of authoritarian rulers. Karine Jean-Pierre’s blistering rebuke of Abbott and DeSantis’s loathsome xenophobia is a pitch perfect response to such extremists.

Is it any wonder that GOP operatives, and the conservative media outlets that echo and amplify their hate-filled talking points, never miss an opportunity to lambaste Jean-Pierre? There must be at least ten reasons why right wing media hate Karine Jean-Pierre.

10. Identity Politics 101

A Haitian immigrant and the first Black person and openly LGBTQ person to serve as White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre hits the conservative haters’ trifecta — xenophobia, racism, and homophobia. Simply put, Jean-Pierre embodies all that Republican politicians and pundits despise about American multicultural democracy.

But don’t take my word for it. Consider the intolerance posing as patriotism in this invective written by Larry Bell for Newsmax.

9. Kill the Messenger

Historically, the White House Press Secretary has played the unenviable role of being the bearer of bad news. In a highly polarized political environment, the knives come out early and often. Of course, the party of Trump has no tolerance for good news either. It seems there’s just no pleasing MAGA country — outside of the coronation of King Donald I.

Despite the vitriol, Karine Jean-Pierre remains poised, and makes clear she won’t tolerate smears, innuendo, and Trump’s Big Lie.

8. The Radical Left Strikes Again. Again!

Breitbart drafted right wing media’s game plan for covering Karine Jean-Pierre. Shortly after she was named to replace Jen Psaki as press secretary, Breitbart warned readers: “Jean-Pierre’s appointment was hailed as ‘historic’ … However, there are several facts about Jean-Pierre’s record of radical politics that might prove to be more important than her skin color or her sexual preference.”

Along the way, Breitbart has smeared Jean-Pierre as anti-Israel and a racist. Without putting too fine a point on it, Breitbart and its allies in the right wing media sphere take the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to covering Jean-Pierre’s White House press briefings.

7. The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

It’s not every day I complement George W. Bush, but he was on to something when he spoke about “the soft bigotry of low expectations” confronting racial and ethnic minorities in American schools.

That bigotry comes hard and fast when right wing media mock Karine Jean-Pierre. And because she is the White House spokesperson, there’s plenty of opportunity for racist, xenophobic, homophobes to spew their contempt.

Consider this “takedown” from Fox News. Headlined, “Karine Jean-Pierre blasted for defense of Inflation Reduction Act: ‘What is She Smoking?’” this hit piece is emblematic of the right wing media’s playbook: echo and amplify conservative talking points. Hence this operative soundbite, courtesy of Washington Timescolumnist Tim Young, “She’s completely worthless.” 

6. It’s Easier Than Supporting Tina Peters

In sharp contrast to the right wing noise machine’s incessant harassment of Karine Jean-Pierre there’s eerie silence in conservative media defending Tina Peters, the election-denying Colorado clerk who’s under state and federal investigation for — wait for it! — election fraud.

It’s like bringing a pillow guy to a knife fight.

5. The Kamala Connection

Long before Biden tapped Karine Jean-Pierre as White House press secretary, right wing media “exposed” the Kamala connection: Jean-Pierre worked as chief of staff for vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Coupled with the vitriol targeting another historic Black woman, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, conservative media have a penchant for demonizing women of color in positions of power and authority.

4. Free Passes and Double Standards

Conservative media excel at working the refs, badgering news workers, press secretaries and anyone who will listen to accept their preferred news frames and spin. Consider the false equivalence between the pathological liar-in-chief and Jean-Pierre proffered by Gateway Pundit.

“When Trump was president, the media fact checkers never shut up. Every claim made by the Trump White House was examined and relentlessly scrutinized,” writes Mike LaChance. “Yet Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who flat out lies on a regular basis and frequently gets basic facts completely wrong, is getting a free pass from the fact check crowd.”

The party of Trump enforces a zero-tolerance policy on free passes and double standards — unless of course it applies to the twice-impeached former president.

3. WMD

The Washington Free Beacon deploys weapons of mass distraction in its attempt to undermine Jean-Pierre’s credibility. Taking the press secretary’s comments out of context, this supercut video succeeds brilliantly in distracting conservative media watchers from substantive issues and doing all the thinking for them.

2. It Doesn’t Require Thinking

One of the laziest efforts to criticize Jean-Pierre’s performance, this “story” revisits GOP talking points on Biden’s “divisive” speech at Independence Hall earlier this month.

“Last Thursday,” writes Jim Hoft, “Joe Biden delivered the speech of a dictator, in the style of a dictator, in the visuals of a dictator, using the words of a dictator.”

The balance of the piece is an 11 second video posted to Twitter by RNC Research of Jean-Pierre plainly stating the speech “wasn’t divisive.”  If that’s supposed to be a gotcha, who’s gaslighting who?

1. Joe Biden

At the end of the day, right wing media hate Karine Jean-Pierre because she is President Joe Biden’s intersectional press secretary. You name the issue and conservative news outlets blame it on the White House spokesperson. It’s dog whistle shorthand for opposing Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, abortion, and immigration policy.

The rancor hits a rolling boil as the November midterms approach. Although it remains to be seen if there’ll be “big problems” in the weeks ahead, you can be certain right wing media will continue posting petty critiques of Karine Jean-Pierre.

Perhaps none is more revealing – or desperate – than this ridiculous riff from The Daily Caller suggesting that Jean-Pierre is wearing Ivanka Trump knockoffs.

Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture. His most recent book is Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.

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