Joe Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre always manages to find new ways to embarrass herself. From the very beginning, she’s proven herself to be a lackluster spokesperson. Biden received praise from the media for promoting her to replace Jen Psaki, but that was because Jean-Pierre was a black lesbian rather than for her communication abilities. As such, her first months as White House Press Secretary haven’t gone very well.
She has managed to be even less prepared than Jen Psaki, awkwardly dodging questions and constantly having to refer to her notes. Things were getting so bad that they even brought Pentagon spokesman John Kirby over to babysit her. It also goes without saying that her exchanges with Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy haven’t gone well for her either.
Her latest problem is her inability to pronounce well-known words. In a recent press briefing, Jean-Pierre, while discussing the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, botched the word “emeritus.”
"Em-er-eye-tis" pic.twitter.com/ZfgBsMv5Px
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 4, 2023
There are actually many more examples of Jean-Pierre botching common words. For example, mispronouncing “bicameral” as “bicarmel.”
“Bicarmel”pic.twitter.com/DCVrEggUv2
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 4, 2023
Or pronouncing the “Nobel Prize” as “Noble Prize” and “Korean Armistice” as “Korean Armtice.”
"Armtice"pic.twitter.com/cSRAut3XdP
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 4, 2023
And one of my personal favorites: calling the Nord Stream pipeline the “Nordstrom” pipeline.
Karine Jean-Pierre refers to Russia's Nord Stream pipeline as the "Nordstrom" pipeline pic.twitter.com/G4tus1PuVJ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 6, 2022
One could say that pointing this out is petty, but I can distinctly remember the media mocking George W. Bush for how he pronounced the word “nuclear” and implying that his mispronunciation was a reflection of low intelligence when, in actuality, it is not an uncommon pronunciation, often attributed to regional dialects the same way the word “aunt” is pronounced like a bug in most of the United States but more like how it’s spelled in New England.
Her repeated mispronunciation of words is a different animal. As the White House Press Secretary, her job is entirely based on communication, and, as the above examples show, her communication skills are lacking. It’s bad enough she constantly needs to refer to notes, but her habitual mispronunciations suggest that she really doesn’t know what she’s talking about and is just brainlessly reading off her script.
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