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Former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a conversation at Harvard University in October that her successor Karine Jean-Pierre's new memoir was "outdated."
"I would say the book is outdated. I’ve read the book. In the sense of this, and this is a challenge with publishing a book, because it is published months before, I mean you finish writing it months before it actually comes out," Psaki, who was former President Joe Biden's press secretary before Jean-Pierre, said during the conversation on Oct. 27.
Psaki, now an MSNBC host, pointed to the pushback against the Trump administration in recent months through protests as well as the Democratic lawmakers' support of the government shutdown in order to get Republicans to vote to extend the Obamacare subsidies. The shutdown officially ended Thursday after it became the longest shutdown in history.
Jean-Pierre released her book in October, titled "Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines." The former press secretary revealed she was leaving the Democratic Party in the book, citing its treatment of Biden after his debate against President Donald Trump, which ultimately led to him dropping out.
KJP CONFRONTED ABOUT CLAIM THAT NEW BOOK TITLE ABOUT 'BROKEN' WHITE HOUSE REFERS TO TRUMP, NOT BIDEN
Former White House press secretaries Karine Jean-Pierre and Jen Psaki during a press briefing in Washington, D.C., on May 5, 2022. ( Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
"I don’t think you can look out at the country and see that 7 million people just showed up to protest across the country — peaceful protests — or you see people who are activists in their streets and their communities with the military showing up and ICE showing up and think that the country is asleep, or the Democratic Party is asleep," Psaki said of the current state of her party.
She added, "I just don’t believe that. I do think there is more work that needs to be done, and I mean that by elected officials and a range of people, but I think that it’s sort of a misread of what the reaction has been."
Dee Dee Myers, who served as press secretary during the Clinton administration, spoke alongside Psaki and offered what she said was a "cautionary tale" about Jean-Pierre’s book.
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre arrives for a daily news briefing at the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on Feb. 15, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
"I haven’t read the book, but the only thing I would add is a bit of a cautionary tale. You come out of the White House, it’s a white-hot, red-hot, whatever hot environment, and you have a lot of feelings. And I just think to write a book that quickly is probably not well advised for anybody," she said.
She suggested waiting and processing the experience before writing.
Jean-Pierre insisted in multiple interviews promoting the book that she did not see signs of decline in Biden while she was press secretary.
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Her assertion was met with skepticism during the interviews on CBS, including from late-night host Stephen Colbert, who was a staunch Biden supporter.
"I’m not questioning his heart or his policies, but it takes more than that to be the president of the United States," Colbert said during the interview on Oct. 20. "And in a moment of great pressure on stage, we saw someone shock us and worry us. And nothing could assuage that worry. So I don’t think it was necessarily a betrayal of Joe Biden as other people saying, ‘We don’t think we were shown the Joe Biden that you saw.'"
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Jean-Pierre’s representative did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News' Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi contributed to this report.
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
