The Diversity Hire Comes Through

As I wrote last week, in reference to the ginned-up media furore over MAPAS, the reality is that diversity’n’inclusion policies ultimately do more harm than good. Not only do they breed resentment among the losers, but they tar the supposed beneficiaries with the suspicion that, no matter how good they might be, they were only promoted to fill a diversity slot.

Worse for the groups that diversity hiring targets, artificially promoting reasonably talented people to the very elite ranks throws them in way above their heads. Consider, a B+ student who would thrive at a regular university or community college gets bumped up by diversity policies to the elite classes of MIT or Harvard and forced to compete now with the absolute prodigies. With depressing regularity, they flounder and drop out, instead of getting a perhaps less prestigious degree, but a degree nonetheless.

Perhaps no-one better exemplifies the perils of diversity hiring than White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Make no mistake: Jean-Pierre is the diversity hire. Her very first words as press secretary were outlining her intersectional credentials: female, black, immigrant, gay.

Competent press secretary? Hell, no.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged repeated questions on when exactly President Joe Biden was briefed on baby formula shortages and by whom. Biden shocked everyone on Wednesday, June 1 when he said he wasn’t told about the crisis until “early April,” but Jean-Pierre — during a second day of grilling about the timeline of the crisis — said he actually became aware in “late April.” In the course of the briefing, she backtracked and then refused to say who informed Biden. The president waited until mid-May to invoke federal powers as parents became increasingly desperate.

Jean-Pierre was increasingly evasive in her answers to the barrage of questions directed her way, saying it was ‘senior staff’ who went through ‘regular channels’ to deliver the information. Her lack of details prompted one White House correspondent to warn her that the journalists would keep pressing her for specifics.

This is far from the first time Jean-Pierre has wilted in front of the press. On her very first day in the job, she earned widespread mockery for her “rambling, incoherent statement” in response to questions about the inflation crippling America. She has refused to answer questions about payments to illegal immigrants, and floundered on questions over Roe v Wade.

It’s not just the mean ol’ white guys at Fox who are tearing this incompetent clown show a new one.

Veteran journalists tore into Jean-Pierre, who became press secretary just last month, pointing out that they’d sought the same information earlier and were told she’d check with the president to confirm when he learned that a Feb 17 recall and factory closure would cause nationwide formula shortages. During the briefing, Kelly O’Donnell, NBC News reporter told Jean-Pierre, “On the issue of who briefed the president on baby formula, to say there was no specific person is not a satisfactory answer.” “When you have senior assistants to the president, there’s a paper trail, I’m sure, about briefings to the president,” O’Donnell continued […]

She was grilled by reporters on Wednesday, June 1, and had no additional answers when asked about the issue again on Thursday, June 2. In addition to this, her responses to questions about how Biden wanted to tackle gun crime were also nothing spectacular. The new press sec seemed clearly exasperated on being asked about why Biden was planning to head to his beachside home in Delaware after delivering a major speech on gun control on Thursday, June 2. She struggled to explain why he was not staying in Washington to work with Congress.

MSN

To be fair, I guess, Jean-Pierre has some mighty big clown shoes to fill. Her predecessor, Jen Psaki, was only slightly less hopeless.

And both of them have the thankless job of trying to put a positive spin on perhaps the worst administration in American history.

No wonder so many spin doctors are jumping ship.

Three top staffers have bailed on the Biden administration’s press office in less than a week […]

One NBC report alleged that the West Wing is in for a significant shakeup over Biden’s stagnant and slumped polling numbers. More than a dozen top aides have left Vice President Kamala Harris’s office in the last year, and more than 20 black staffers have allegedly left the White House since late 2021, according to the NY Post.

The Daily Caller

Why all the black staffers bailing? I’m sure if Trump was still president, the legacy media would have an answer ready to hand…