Europe 1 with AFP 10:50 p.m., May 05, 2022
She will replace Jen Psaki, whose deputy she was until now, from May 13, according to a press release from the White House in which Joe Biden says he is "proud" of this appointment.
The president also praises the "experience, talent and honesty" of his future spokesperson.
US President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he has chosen Karine Jean-Pierre as the next spokesperson for the White House, awarding this highly exposed position to a black and openly lesbian woman for the first time.
“She will be the first black and openly LGBTQ+ woman” in this position, tweeted for her part Jen Psaki, her predecessor, who had made it known from the start that she would hand over during the term of office, adding: “She will give a voice to many people and it will enable many to have big dreams."
According to US media, the outgoing spokesperson would join the progressively oriented MSNBC channel.
Karine Jean-Pierre, 44, is the first black woman to take on the role of "Press Secretary".
This Francophone, who shares the life of a CNN journalist, with whom she has a daughter, also becomes the first lesbian to take on this dreadfully exposed function.
A francophone who grew up in New York
Born in Martinique to Haitian parents who then emigrated to the United States, she worked on the two campaigns of Barack Obama (2008 and 2012) then that of Joe Biden in 2020 before joining his team at the White House.
A graduate of the prestigious Columbia University before entering the world of associations and politics, Karine Jean-Pierre has often explained how much her family's journey, emblematic of the "American dream", had been decisive for her career.
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She grew up in New York, where her father worked as a taxi driver and her mother as a home caregiver.
"I am everything that Donald Trump hates," she explained in 2018 in a video for the organization MoveOn, of which she was once one of the main figures.