To keep the spotlight on herself in her final briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blocked National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby from briefing on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, sources told the New York Post.
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that a ceasefire had been reached between Israel and Hamas before what was slated to be Jean-Pierre’s last press briefing. Before heading out to the lectern, Jean-Pierre made the decision to block her foe Kirby from attending and briefing reporters on the deal despite it being the request of National security adviser Jake Sullivan to White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, two sources told the NYP. (RELATED: ‘Unprecedented’: KJP’s Worst Fears Appear To Be Coming True)
“She basically said it was her goodbye party,” one source told the outlet.
“She kinda marketed it as a celebration of her and her tenure and unfortunately that took precedence over huge breaking news — and we haven’t had this kind of news in this administration for a long time,” the source added.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre takes a question from a reporter for White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby (R) during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on December 12, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Jean-Pierre’s decision to block Kirby from the briefing kept reporters from getting the news of which hostages were being released until an hour later, since the press secretary had additional information to share at the lectern on Wednesday, the NYP reported.
“I thought at the last minute she would just break and say, ‘OK, fine, [Kirby] can just come at the top and he can leave, and then I can wax poetic about my time here, and then I don’t really even have to answer any questions and be grilled on anything,’” a source told the NYP.
“But she really wanted to make a point that the briefing room was ‘hers.’ And so that’s why she pushed so much, and in the end, she feels like she won, and I guess she kind of did,” the source added.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates did not deny to the NYP that Sullivan had requested that Kirby attend the briefing, but told the outlet that “the administration chose to have an on-record call with Brett McGurk because he was on the ground and could provide firsthand details to the press.”
National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speak during the daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 8, 2024. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
It was reported in October that the pair were feuding as KJP was frequently blocking Kirby from attending the briefings, people familiar with the matter told Axios. Frustrations has previously hit a boiling point in January 2024 over the amount of time each spent taking questions following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, but in the coming months Kirby nearly disappeared altogether as the press secretary kept him from attending briefings, the outlet reported. (RELATED: White House Briefing Room Has Reportedly Devolved Into A Mean Girls Power Struggle)
When Kirby has attended the briefings, Jean-Pierre has called on reporters for him, a practice that has frustrated Kirby as it is typically a practice used for infrequent guests, Axios reported.
The arrangement, however, is one that seems to have come from Biden himself, Axios previously reported.
“You’ll have an admiral looking over your shoulder,” Biden reportedly told Jean-Pierre when she was named press secretary.
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