CNN anchor Brianna Keilar grilled ex-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday after she insisted she was not worried about former President Joe Biden’s cognitive state before he dropped out of the 2024 election.
During Biden’s final months in office, Jean-Pierre said that he was “as sharp as ever” and blamed his disastrous debate against Donald Trump on a cold. She has since left the Democratic Party to write a book, “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House.”
Keilar noted that another book, Jake Tapper’s “Original Sin,” has described Democratic officials actively limiting Biden’s time in public. She said even actor George Clooney smelled trouble when Biden didn’t recognize him at a 2024 fundraiser.
Keilar asked Friday, “Why didn’t you have concerns? Why didn’t you raise them?”
“So, I did not have any concerns,” Jean-Pierre replied. “I saw him on a daily basis, Brianna. You know that. I saw him every day. I engaged with him every day. Now, did he show age? No one is denying that. Yes, he showed age. This is a president that was sharp.”
Jean-Pierre, who had maintained that Biden could finish a second term, doubled down Friday by arguing that he was “on top of” policy, touting his coalition-building skills to fight Russia’s war in Ukraine and early successes in his presidency.
“That’s not what I’m asking about, Karine,” said Keilar. “Do you think he should be president right now? Do you think that he is capable, right now, of being president? Because that is what you were advocating for, someone who would be president in his current state until 2029.”
Jean-Pierre insisted that she had not seen “anything that concerned me” and reiterated that she saw a “sharp” Biden “every single day.” The former press secretary added that she couldn’t speak to Tapper’s book, which she noted in her own book she has no plans to read.
“I mean, why not?” Keilar asked on Friday. “If most people, a lot of people, if the leadership of their workplace imploded and someone wrote a book with 200 sources, many of them good, they would want to read it, they would want to reflect on that. Why not?”
“No, because I saw it personally and I experienced it personally on an average, day to day,” the former press secretary replied. “And right now, Brianna, look where we are today. It is important to talk about where we are today. We are in an unprecedented situation.”
Jean-Pierre went on to condemn the Trump administration for launching mass deportations and having masked immigration agents snatch civilians off the street. She said she’s already talked about her time with Biden and that “we also have to look at this moment.”
Keilar pushed no further, agreeing that Trump’s policies are indeed concerning, but concluded, “We would be remiss if we didn’t talk about how we get to this moment. That is certainly essential.”