Karine Jean-Pierre, mouthpiece for Joe Biden and minorities

She will be one of the new faces of the Biden administration. Karine Jean-Pierre has just been appointed deputy spokesperson for the White House by the elected president. Of Haitian origin, lesbian and mother of a little girl, from a poor family in the working-class neighborhoods of New York, she embodies this militant class which carries its identity claims high. A life of fighting that she does not hesitate to stage to serve both her political ambitions and the aspirations of the left wing of the Democrats. Observers see in fact in his nomination by Joe Biden a pledge given to the radicals of the party, who are waiting to be heard after having participated in the defeat of Donald Trump.

At 43, her career made her a « role model » for part of the American youth. Released in November 2019, his autobiography, Moving Forward, a story of hope, hard work, and America’s promise, is dedicated to all the underprivileged, from New York to Port-au-Prince, which it brings together under the name “those who have heard the word ‘no’”. She does it without restraint on herself and her family, hoping to encourage vocations. But also to make a name.

Born in Martinique, in Fort-de-France, Karine Jean-Pierre is the daughter of a Haitian couple who fled the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier, alias “Baby Doc”. She was 5 years old when the family arrived in the United States, in New York after a quick visit to the Paris region. English at school, French at home, she grew up mixing languages ​​and cultures, like many comrades at her parish establishment in Queens. The girl is gifted, her parents have great ambitions for her: engineer, lawyer… and above all, doctor.

But the studies of biology hardly enthuse her and it is finally towards the policy that she turns. She joined the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, a member of the eminent “Ivy League”, named after the college network from which most of the country’s leaders come. Insufficient for his parents. “My father and my mother were horrified, for them, politics was the Haitian dictatorship and corruption,” she explained in an interview with CBS.

Resilience

Having come to live the American dream, the family experiences many difficulties. “My parents taught me perseverance as well as beauty, but also the difficulty of being an immigrant,” she explains. Her father is a taxi driver, her mother is a caregiver, they work a lot and often let little Karine take care of her brother and sister. “No TV, no pajama party (…) we were really working class,” says the woman who assures us that she quickly learned to cook and wash the dishes for everyone in addition to her studies.

A drama is added to this life of hard work, she reveals in her book to have been sexually assaulted during her younger years. A trauma that plunges her into periods of despair, going as far as a suicide attempt. But following the family example, she raises her head. Her diploma in hand, she launched headlong into her career. She first worked for the – unsuccessful – presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards in 2004 before betting on a promising young senator: Barack Obama, “the man who, under all circumstances, is the smartest person in the room” . She joined her campaign team in 2008 and held various positions in the White House after the election. “I was finally able to reassure my parents! »She laughs today. In turn, she founded a family. With Suzanne Malveaux, one of CNN’s star journalists, she is one of Washington’s most influential couples. The two have adopted a 6-year-old baby girl named Soleil who already has a selfie with Obama hanging in her bedroom.

The election of Donald Trump in 2016 pushed her to join the influential political organization MoveOn.org. Created in 1998 to support Bill Clinton, then in the midst of the Lewinsky affair, the structure has since become a voice for minorities and the “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party. At the same time, Karine Jean-Pierre was appointed political columnist on MSNBC, the country’s most left-wing 24-hour news channel, and she began teaching political science at Columbia, her former university. Her face starts to become familiar, especially after January 2019 when she is enjoying her first moment of glory. For MoveOn, she moderates a debate in San Francisco in which California Senator Kamala Harris participates. The rest, she told it on many television sets. “This white man jumps on the scene, with all his privileges (we will then learn that he was an animal rights activist, Editor’s note), interrupts three women of color talking about the rights of women of color exactly. I thought, he’s coming for Kamala Harris, I need to protect her. This is what I do, I intervene. The video has since gone viral. ”

We praise his courage and his temerity. Kamala Harris will remember it, when Joe Biden chooses her as running mate, she imposes Karine Jean-Pierre as her campaign leader and essential member of the Biden-Harris “ticket”. It fully participates in the victory by mobilizing its networks among young people and minorities. But since November 3, we no longer hear him, except for a few tweets on his account, which has become one of the most influential in the country, especially when his appointment to the White House spokesperson was announced with Jen. Psaki. Instructions have been given to all of Joe Biden’s future team to remain silent so as not to further disturb this funny period of transition.

It will be necessary to wait until January and the handover of power to see Karine Jean-Pierre in the press room of the White House. Deputy spokesperson for the American president is no small feat. Even though his parents preferred a doctor.