On Monday, Oct. 27, Swarthmore’s Black Cultural Center (BCC) hosted former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for a moderated conversation, Q&A session, and book signing. The event, titled “Moving Forward: Independent” and sponsored by The Sager Fund, was devoted to Jean-Pierre’s nonfiction books, Moving Forward (2019) and Independent (2025). The first book recounts Jean-Pierre’s experiences as an openly queer Black woman in the world of politics, while her recent work, a vitriolic critique of the Democratic Party for its “betrayal” of Joe Biden, explains her decision to become a registered independent.
The visit marked a stop on Jean-Pierre’s highly controversial book tour, taking place as her critique of the Democratic Party continues to receive accusations of incoherence and emptiness from commentators on the political left and right alike. The conversation at LPAC occurred only a few hours after The New Yorker published an interview with Jean-Pierre that has since garnered significant negative attention.
Before Jean-Pierre took the stage, BCC Director Karima Bouchenafa delivered the evening’s opening remarks. After expressing gratitude for the support of the Sager Fund, the Office of Inclusive Excellence, and a number of Swarthmore academic departments that came together to make the event possible, Bouchenafa highlighted the aspects of Jean-Pierre’s story that she felt made the visit especially significant for the college.
As a proud daughter of Haitian immigrants, a longtime political organizer, and the first Black person and the first openly LGBTQ+ individual to serve as White House press secretary, Bouchenafa said, Jean-Pierre embodies the perseverance and commitment to justice that lie at the heart of Swarthmore’s values.
Dean Bouchenafa invited Jean-Pierre to the stage, along with Joie Romelus ’27, an Inclusive Excellence Fellow and BCC Intern who interviewed her.
Jean-Pierre acknowledged the importance of her background in bringing her to her role as press secretary: “I wouldn’t have been press secretary if it wasn’t for the President [Biden] saying, ‘Hey, you are the moment. I want to meet the moment, and I want you to be the voice for me.’ That was an honor and a privilege.”
Being a historical first, however, came with a price. “You’re judged very differently than anybody else who’s had that role … There’s a microscope that’s always on you. One of the things that I think that I tried to do was not pay attention to the noise. I never read anything that was glowing about me or negative about me.”
Still, she emphasized that the job required her to leave her identity at the door. “I was press secretary for the president, not for me, which meant that I could never have my own voice.”
It was inevitable, she claimed, that there would be moments in which the communities she understood herself to represent would feel betrayed or abandoned by the White House. Difficult though it was to accept, her responsibility on these occasions was not to speak up for the offended parties, but to assure them that the Biden administration would be there to protect their interests.
After what she perceived as Biden’s unfair ousting from the party’s 2024 presidential ticket, Jean-Pierre felt the need to take a stand. She emphatically denied that her decision to become an independent represented a shift away from a clearly defined political stance. Rather, she said, the move was the boldest political statement she’d made in the course of her career.
“Being an independent doesn’t mean that you’re waffling in the middle. If anything, it means you recognize the importance of your singular perspective and are courageous enough to express it. Being independent means refusing to silence your voice just so you can belong.” Seeming to change course, however, she continued, “Real change doesn’t come from those who follow the crowd. It doesn’t come from those who are the loudest. It comes from those who listen to others with an open mind. It comes from those who live by conviction, not consensus.”
After the conversation between Jean-Pierre and Romelus, audience members were invited to share their questions with the former Press Secretary.
The first student question came from Keanu Arpels-Josiah ’28, who pointedly asked Jean-Pierre if she maintained that she didn’t regret any action she took in her capacity as press secretary, a reflection she recently shared in an MSNBC interview. Arpels-Josiah mentioned Jean-Pierre’s defense of Biden’s policies on Gaza, domestic oil production, and immigration enforcement.
“Starvation, people being killed — what we’re seeing in Gaza is awful. It would be inhumane for me to not say that, and I believe we did say that during the administration. I have a six year old, and my parents come from a dictatorship, so I get it.”
She continued, “In my job as White House press secretary, I was not speaking for myself. What I hope is that Joe Biden and his foreign policy folks will speak to that [in Biden’s upcoming book]. That job was a job that I would never have gotten from anybody else, and to have walked through the West Wing, to be sitting a stone’s throw from the Oval Office — that’s not something that you can be not proud of. No presidency would say they did everything right, but these are policies that have existed for a long time. It didn’t just sit in the Biden administration.”
Arpels-Josiah clarified that he was asking Jean-Pierre about her personal role, rather than Biden’s policy agenda. Jean-Pierre responded that she wouldn’t relitigate her position. Arpels-Josiah and Jean-Pierre continued to speak over one another for a short time before event organizers moved onto other student questions. Another student asked the former press secretary to share her advice on creating a more humane and civil model of partisan discourse.
“In this moment, we don’t have the important conversations we need to be having. It is up to all of you, as young people, to ask those hard questions and to be in community. Bring people with you, bring people together, and push and push and push. For example, I appreciated the question that [Arpels-Josiah] was asking, but then you’ve got to question the Trump administration as well. You’ve got to question U.S. policy more broadly. You’ve got to push and push and push. And there is an issue, there is a problem, but you have to also question everything in this moment as well. I think it’s important to do that.”
A local journalist with The Swarthmorean, who added that she was a fan of Jean-Pierre, asked her to speak to the behavior of current White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Jean-Pierre responded by clarifying that she has not seen any of Leavitt’s briefings.
“I really tried to have some self-care for the past ten months. But, obviously, like everybody else, I see clips that go viral, and I’ve spoken to this,” she continued, “Freedom of the press is so critical and important. No one likes to be held accountable by the press, but what makes this country move and what makes our democracy strong is to have the freedom of the press.”
Despite the criticism the administration received because of a lack of media conferences and press time with President Biden, Jean-Pierre continued, “One of the things that we believed in in our administration was healthy back and forth. We didn’t care for how we were covered, but we were going to have a healthy back and forth. Press briefings are televised globally, and what we’re doing is telling other leaders that democracy matters to us. When you take that away in that briefing room, it becomes state TV. It becomes gerrymandered messaging. It’s incredibly scary. That’s why we need journalism now more than we have ever needed it before. Our democracy is in trouble, but it can be saved.”
Student reactions to the event were mixed.
“Personally, I enjoyed the talk a lot,” said a Swarthmore student in attendance. “The discussion of critical thinking within a group that is generally viewed as homogenous, like the left is today, was really important.”
Others felt that Jean-Pierre’s conduct failed to align with the values she asserted. One student reported that, while attempting to ask Jean-Pierre additional questions after the talk, she was informed that the Q&A session was over and escorted out of the event by Public Safety officers.
Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, said the following:
“I thought it was a fascinating talk, but frankly, I was a little disappointed. It seemed to me that the opening of the talk was all about the importance of being independent, but then when it came time to actually discuss an issue on which she might have disagreed with the Biden administration, she couldn’t offer a single word of condemnation. It was honestly a little sad.”
