Karine Jean-Pierre is presumably trying to sell copies of her much-maligned memoir with her ongoing press tour, but it seems like audiences are really only taking one thing away from her interviews. And that is that she is a – all together now – a “black, queer woman.”
It looks like people have noticed her identity politics tic because she actually had to defend her incessant mentions of her race, gender, and sexual orientation during a recent podcast appearance.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by the hosts of the RealClearPolitics Podcast – Tom Bevan, Carl Cannon, and Andrew Walworth – to discuss KJP’s rambling reasoning.
KJP’s Defense
After a string of high-profile faceplants during her book tour (here’s looking at you New Yorker interview), Jean-Pierre made her way to the Higher Learning podcast hosted by journalist Van Lathan and former Bachelorette star Rachel Lindsay.
The show purports to “dissect the biggest topics in black culture, politics, and sports,” and Lathan brought up the fact that KJP managed to bring together conservative podcaster Katie Miller and The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur over the fact that they both don’t have a whole lot of time for how often she references identity.
“Cenk thinks that talking about your identity as a black, queer woman is playing into identity politics and something that you do to shield yourself from criticism. [Miller] kind of said the same thing in a different way,” Lathan said. “I want you to maybe talk a little bit about why it’s so important for you to talk about that.”
Jean-Pierre said her critics have it all wrong. “I love that you said that because if anything I get criticized for saying I’m a black queer woman. I don’t get shielded from saying I’m a black queer woman. If anything, it actually puts a target– more of a target on me when I say it,” she claimed. “And I bring it up because there are communities out there who don’t feel seen, or who are scared, or who are fearful, and I think I need to own it and I’ve always been unapologetic about who I am. I will never ever, ever run away from it.”
She then undermined her argument by admitting it is not actually something that needs to be articulated. “And first of all, black– I mean, you see me and I’m a black woman. So, I don’t– you know what I mean? I don’t have to– I don’t have to say it. I mean… I walk into a room, there goes a black woman. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, I don’t, I don’t even understand that. I can’t hide the fact that I’m a black woman,” Jean-Pierre added. “So, why not own it?”
Based on the following response, “owning it” seems to mean stringing together a series of woke words in order to explain why she feels the need to string together a series of woke words.
“And so I will never apologize for being in the body, and the space, and the communities that I occupy,” KJP said. “And it’s almost as if no, you’re going to acknowledge me because this is who I am, and I’m not going to hide it, and I’m going to put it in your face because this is who I am. Again, I actually get criticized for being a black, queer woman. I get criticized for it. So, why not own it? Why not live in that space and be like, ‘I don’t care.'”
Next, Lathan asked Jean-Pierre how she deals with “fighting this constant battle for our humanity” as people criticize DEI policies. “They say that your job, and what you were able to do, how you got to the White House was… not because you had done anything else, but because you are black,” he said. “How did you get to be the White House press secretary?”
Rather than defend her resume, KJP said she had to “go back to the other thing” because apparently she wasn’t done talking about why she constantly talks about being a black, queer woman:
“It pisses me off that people who have not walked in my shoes, who have no idea who really I am as a person, get to tell me how I get to identify myself. So, it’s like, I was like, you can’t tell me how I get to identify myself. You can’t tell me how I get to call myself. Like, screw you. Like… that’s not okay. Like, that is not okay. You have no right to tell anybody how they should identify themselves and how they see themselves in the world. Like, you have not walked through my battles. You have not walked through my life. You don’t even know my personal story. So, that’s how I really– that just, that just boils me up, so I had to say that.”
The Actual Issue
Megyn said the exchange is the perfect illustration of why Jean-Pierre was not cut out to be White House press secretary for a couple reasons. “First of all, she is a communications expert, allegedly,” she pointed out. “[She said,] ‘How I get to call myself.’ That is not a phrase. That is not appropriate English.”
“But second of all, no one is telling her how she has to identify herself, just that she should stop doing it incessantly,” Megyn added. “If asked what your race is, you should say black. If asked what your sexual orientation is, you should say you’re a lesbian… The issue is she mentions it obsessively.”
She asked Cannon if he has ever sat for an interview and said, “My name is Carl Cannon, and I am a white, straight male. And I just want you to know my perspective as a white straight male.” Cannon joked that it has never been necessary because, to KJP’s point, “if you see me, you know right away.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with RealClearPolitics by tuning in to episode 1,187 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.