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karine jean-pierre
Former Biden Press Secretary, Who Defended Gaza Genocide, 'Very Proud of Everything' She Did
"One of the most disgusting things you'll see today, but also extremely revealing," one critic said of Karine Jean-Pierre's appearance on MSNBC.
Oct 27, 2025
Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said over the weekend that she's "very proud of everything" she did during her tenure as a spokesperson for the Biden administration and would not "take anything back," despite spending more than a year defending US support for Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza.
"Obviously, what's happening is heartbreaking," Jean-Pierre said of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza when pressed on the issue during an appearance on MSNBC. She went on to express hope for a lasting ceasefire and long-term peace agreement.
"But I didn't make policy," she added.
Acknowledging that "we did not get everything right," Jean-Pierre said unequivocally, "I was very proud of everything that I did."
"I woke up every day as a Black woman who is queer... No one had ever seen someone like me at that podium standing behind that lectern," she said. "It was an honor and a privilege."
Watch:
This is one of the most disgusting things you'll see today, but also extremely revealing.@AymanM asks former White House Press Secretary Jean-Pierre if she regrets defending Biden’s Gaza policy (blind support and for Israel's genocide).
She first tries to explain it away by… pic.twitter.com/AzrHRVfCkj
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) October 26, 2025
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, called Jean-Pierre's interview "one of the most disgusting things you'll see today, but also extremely revealing."
"She uses the identity card to make genocide apologism permissible," Parsi wrote on Sunday. "In Jean-Pierre's world, her identity gives her the license to support genocide without regret."
Jean-Pierre is making the media rounds as she promotes her new book, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, in which she explains her decision to exit the Democratic Party.
As Washington Post book critic Becca Rothfeld noted in a scathing review, Jean-Pierre did not cite the Biden administration's steadfast support for Israel's decimation of Gaza as among the reasons she ditched her former party.
"Jean-Pierre's central complaint boils down, more or less, to a vague sense of personal grievance. The Democrats were mean to [President Joe] Biden, her boss; they were mean to her personally," Rothfeld wrote. "Jean-Pierre sums up her complaints when she writes that she's 'exasperated with the shady way Democrats do business'—but not, we may presume, with the business itself."
Part of that business under the Biden administration was providing material and diplomatic support to Israel as it waged all-out war on the Gaza Strip following the deadly Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
As chief spokesperson for the Biden White House, Jean-Pierre stood before the press and the global community and defended the administration's support for Israel's assault while criticizing international efforts to pursue accountability for Israeli leaders, as well as efforts by US lawmakers to halt the flow of weaponry used to massacre Palestinians indiscriminately.
"We strongly oppose this resolution," Jean-Pierre said last November when asked about a Sen. Bernie Sanders-led push to block US bomb sales to Israel.
"We are very committed to Israel's security," Jean-Pierre added. "That has been ironclad."
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Tlaib Slams White House for Criticizing Cori Bush's Vow to Fight AIPAC
One observer predicted that one day, Bush will "be remembered for valiantly standing up for the rights of Palestinians when too many still did not have the political courage to do so."
Aug 08, 2024
U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Wednesday ripped the White House for admonishing Rep. Cori Bush's vow to fight the American Israel Public Affairs Committee after the powerful lobby group spent millions of dollars to unseat the Missouri Democrat for opposing Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza.
AIPAC's dark money arm, United Democracy Project (UDP), spent $8 million in support of Bush's opponent, St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, in the second-most expensive House race ever. UDP spent $15 million to defeat Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), another "Squad" member who has criticized Israel's war on Gaza. AIPAC has vowed to spend $100 million to unseat progressive lawmakers—many of them Black and brown—who it deems insufficiently supportive of Israel.
In a defiant concession speech on Tuesday night, Bush declared, "AIPAC, I'm coming to tear your kingdom down!"
"All they did was radicalize me, so now they need to be afraid," she added.
Asked Wednesday if President Joe Biden had any opinion regarding Bush's remarks, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre—who in 2019, before her current job, called AIPAC "severely racist"—linked the congresswoman's speech to last month's attempt to kill former President Donald Trump.
"The president has always been very clear—and very recently, after the assassination attempt of the last president—about lowering rhetoric, right?" Jean-Pierre said. "It is important... that we be very mindful of what we say. This kind of rhetoric is inflammatory and divisive and incredibly unhelpful."
Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American member of Congress,
responded on social media: "You know what's not helpful? Sending bombs to be used for war crimes and killing thousands of children. You know what's not helpful? Attacking a sitting U.S. congressmember, while the org you are defending is funding anti-abortion and insurrectionists (sic) candidates."
Despite Israeli forces killing nearly 40,000 Palestinians—mostly women and children—wounding more than 90,000 others, forcibly displacing around 90% of Gaza's population, and starving children to death with a crippling siege, the Biden administration continues give Israel billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic support including multiple United Nations Security Council vetoes.
On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump, was
interrupted by pro-Palestine protesters during a campaign rally in Detroit, home to one of the nation's largest Muslim communities.
They chanted: "Kamala, Kamala, you can't hide! We won't vote for genocide!"
Harris, staring down the hecklers, replied: "You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking."
According to AIPAC Tracker, Harris, has taken nearly $5.4 million in campaign contributions from AIPAC as either an individual candidate or Biden's running mate.
Leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement—a coalition of pro-Palestine, peace, and progressive groups that urged people to vote "uncommitted" in U.S. Democratic presidential primaries in a bid to pressure the Biden administration to push Israel for a Gaza cease-fire—said they met briefly with Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at the Detroit rally.
"The vice president shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo," the group said.
However, Harris' national security adviser, Phil Gordon, said on social media Thursday that the vice president "does not support an arms embargo on Israel" and "will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups."
Early in the war, Bush introduced a cease-fire resolution supported by 18 other House Democrats. This and other pro-Palestine advocacy, including support for an arms embargo, drew the ire of AIPAC and others supporting a war for which Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the World Court. Dozens of other lawmakers have also called for a Gaza cease-fire.
Such opposition to Israeli policies and practices was once all but unimaginable.
"Over the last two decades, we have seen quite a remarkable shift in opinion on this issue among Democrats in particular," Palestinian American author and political analyst Yousef Munayyer wrote for The Guardian on Wednesday. "Numerous public opinion polls all provide evidence of the same trend. Democrats especially, but also Independents, have grown less sympathetic to Israel over time. A Pew poll from March 2023 found that for the first time, Democrats had more sympathy for Palestinians than Israelis."
Munayyer continued:
The support for Israel once enjoyed in the U.S., when people took it to be as normal as the sun rising every day, is gone. Maintaining what support is left will require persuasion—which isn't easy given they are trying to persuade audiences to support war crimes—and increasingly coercion. That era of coercion and repression is what we are quickly transitioning to and will shape the years to come, but that too comes with reputational costs for pro-Israel forces and will eventually collapse as well.
"When it does," he added, "voices like Cori Bush's will be commonplace in our political class and she will be remembered for valiantly standing up for the rights of Palestinians when too many still did not have the political courage to do so."
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'We Do Not Support' ICC Probe of Israeli War Crimes in Gaza, Says White House
"ICC warrants against Israel and Hamas will offer the West a choice: Either torpedo the international criminal justice project they have advanced since 1945 for good or hypocritically demand impunity for Israeli war crimes."
Apr 29, 2024
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday reaffirmed the Biden administration's opposition to the International Criminal Court potentially issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top officials related to Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.
"Would the U.S. or the White House see any potential arrests by the ICC as an aggravating factor in the negotiations?" one journalist asked about talks to end the bloodshed and free hostages.
Jean-Pierre responded: "So, we've been really clear about the ICC investigation. We do not support it. We don't believe that they have the jurisdiction. And I'm just gonna leave it there for now."
#WATCH | On International Criminal Court's (ICC) investigation into Israel's conduct in Gaza, White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre says, "...We don't believe is in the ICC jurisdiction in this situation. We do not support the investigation. And I think that kind of… pic.twitter.com/du8NpEtLxj
— ANI (@ANI) April 29, 2024
Asked later about President Joe Biden's Sunday call with Netanyahu and whether the U.S. government is involved in any attempts to avert warrants from the Hague-based court, the press secretary echoed her previous comments.
The exchanges followed reporting that the Israeli government, in partnership with the U.S., is "making a concerted effort to head off" possible arrest warrants from the ICC targeting Netanyahu as well as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.
Citing two unnamed Israeli officials, Axios reported that Netanyahu on Sunday asked Biden to help prevent the ICC from issuing warrants. A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told the outlet that "as we have publicly said many times, the ICC has no jurisdiction in this situation and we do not support its investigation."
Neither Israel nor the United States is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the treaty that established the tribunal, but Palestine accepted its jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed "in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem," in 2015.
The ICC formally launched its war crimes investigation in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2021, long before the IDF began its ongoing retaliation for the Hamas-led attack October 7 on Israel. The probe includes crimes going back to June 13, 2014.
Urging Biden "to intervene as part of the administration's ongoing commitment to Israel," U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Monday declared that "it would be a fatal blow to the judicial and moral standing of ICC to pursue this path against Israel."
Mark Kersten, an assistant professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, responded: "Now a Democratic senator is threatening the ICC's very existence if it does what it was created to do: Impartially and independently investigate international crimes, without fear or favor. I hope this grotesque threat and atrocity-denialism is roundly condemned."
Also noting Fetterman's comments, Alonso Gurmendi, a lecturer in international relations at King's College London, said: "They really don't realize just how isolated Western governments are on this. Even among their own populations. This won't be a fatal blow to the ICC. It will relaunch its relationship with the global majority. Fighting this will only isolate and weaken the West further."
In January, the International Court of Justice found that Israel is "plausibly" engaged in genocide in Gaza. As of Monday, the Israeli bombardment and blockade had killed at least 34,488 Palestinians in the Hamas-governed strip, injured another 77,643, left thousands more missing in bombed-out communities, and displaced around 90% of the enclave's 2.3 million people.
Since October, the United States has ramped up its billions of dollars in military support for Israel. The Biden administration has been accused of being complicit in genocide in federal court. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June.
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'This Is an Attempt to Silence My Voice': Tlaib Condemns GOP Censure Motion
"I'm the only Palestinian voice right now in Congress. If anything, my voice is needed here more than ever."
Oct 12, 2023
Facing attacks by fellow Democrats and a censure motion from a Republican congressman from her home state of Michigan, Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Wednesday accused her critics of intentionally misportraying her as a Hamas sympathizer due to her condemnation of Israeli war crimes in Palestine.
Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.)—whose third-biggest campaign contributor during the 2022 election cycle was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—on Wednesday introduced a motion to censure Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, for what he called "her antisemitism and disgraceful response to the attacks on our ally, Israel."
On Saturday, Hamas and other militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza in a wave of attacks that have since killed more than 1,300 Israeli soldiers and civilians, including many women and children. Israel responded by bombarding Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure and killing over 1,400 Palestinians—including at least 447 children—while cutting off power and water and trapping 2.3 million people in the besieged enclave.
"Much of what I'm hearing from Jack and a number of other colleagues is rooted in bigotry, that somehow because of my ethnicity and my faith that I support terrorism."
On Sunday, Tlaib issued a statement mourning the "Palestinian and Israeli lives lost," while asserting that the path to a peaceful future must include lifting Israel's blockade of Gaza, ending its illegal occupation of Palestine, "and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance."
Tlaib's statement also asserted that the "heartbreaking cycle of violence" would continue until the United States stopped giving "billions in unconditional funding" to support Israel's apartheid government.
Citing unverified claims that Hamas "beheaded infants," Bergman's resolution—which was joined by Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas), another beneficiary of AIPAC's largesse—called Tlaib's statement "disturbing and evil."
Responding to Bergman's motion, Tlaib told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday that "I'm the only Palestinian voice right now in Congress. If anything, my voice is needed here more than ever."
"This is an attempt to silence my voice because I want the violence to stop, no matter whether it's toward Israelis or toward Palestinians," she asserted. "Much of what I'm hearing from Jack and a number of other colleagues is rooted in bigotry, that somehow because of my ethnicity and my faith that I support terrorism."
Tlaib and other "Squad" members including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—who condemned the killing of civilians on both sides while urging an end to U.S. support for "Israeli military occupation and apartheid"—also faced harsh rebuke from fellow Democrats in the Biden administration and Congress.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called their comments "disgraceful" and "repugnant," while pro-Israel congressional Democrats piled on the condemnation.
"It sickens me that while Israelis clean the blood of their family members shot in their homes, they believe Congress should strip U.S. funding to our democratic ally and allow innocent civilians to suffer," Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said of Tlaib and her Squad colleagues in a Tuesday interview with Jewish Insider.
"U.S. aid to Israel is and should be unconditional, and never more so than in this moment of critical need," Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) told Jewish Insider. "Shame on anyone who glorifies as 'resistance' the largest single-day mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. It is reprehensible and repulsive."
AIPAC was by far Gottheimer's largest contributor in the 2022 electoral cycle, donating more than $216,000 to his campaign. The same goes for Torres, who received over $141,000 from the group during the same period.
The Nation's John Nichols noted Thursday that Tlaib, Bush, and Omar are being condemned "for saying what prominent Israelis are saying."
Nichols cited Israeli human rights lawyer and rules-of-war expert Michael Sfard, who said: "Hamas committed abominable war crimes for which there can be no forgiveness. But the laws of war weren't meant only for situations in which our blood is cool, or when there is no justified anger or understandable desire for revenge."
He also quotes Israeli journalist Amira Hass, daughter of Holocaust survivors, who wrote in Haaretz that "in a few days Israelis went through what Palestinians have experienced as a matter of routine for decades, and are still experiencing."
"Therefore, this must be said once again—we told you so," Hass added. "Ongoing oppression and injustice explode at unexpected times and places. Bloodshed knows no borders."
Critics have noted that Israelis can freely express truths that, when voiced by Americans, result in condemnation, ostracism, and even loss of employment.
This isn't the first time Tlaib and other progressive Democrats have faced possible censure for defending Palestinians' human rights and criticizing U.S. support for Israeli apartheid, occupation, illegal settler colonization, and other crimes. In 2021, a trio of GOP lawmakers tried and failed to censure Tlaib and Omar—the first two Muslim women elected to Congress—and other Squad members for comments criticizing Israel.
In February, Republicans removed Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in what Jewish Voice for Peace called a "racist attack by the far-right to silence progressives in Congress who speak up for a human rights-centered foreign policy, including Palestinian human rights."
Tlaib and Omar have also received death threats for expressing their views, and have been targeted by a vast international fake news operation exploiting far-right social media accounts to spread Islamophobia.
Undaunted, Tlaib told the Free Press Wednesday that she will continue to remind her congressional colleagues that "a Palestinian life is just as important as an Israeli life," and that, like Hamas, the Israeli government "has to be held accountable for some of its atrocities."
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'July Should Be a Wake-Up Call': Senator Says Biden Must Stop Approving New Fossil Fuel Projects
"We are in a climate emergency," said Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley. "We can't take a piecemeal approach to the massive crisis we face."
Jul 28, 2023
Citing the extreme temperatures baking much of the United States during July—which is set to be the hottest month ever recorded on Earth—Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon on Thursday called on President Joe Biden to stop approving new fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency.
During his Thursday speech on the heat, Biden asked the Labor Department to increase efforts to protect workers from extreme temperatures and to announce new Interior Department water storage investments in Western states. However, the president did not unveil any new measures to combat the planetary emergency. He didn't even mention fossil fuels, the main driver of global heating.
"Americans are roasting and suffering under extreme heat and smoke in nearly every corner of our country. In Arizona, people are getting third-degree burns just from falling on the ground, while even East Coast states are experiencing air clogged with smoke from forest fires," Merkley said in a statement.
"In July, average temperatures for the entire globe have been the highest on record," he continued. "Add that on top of the last nine years being the nine warmest years on record. We are in a climate emergency. We can't take a piecemeal approach to the massive crisis we face."
"July should be a wake-up call for everyone," Merkley asserted, calling on Biden to first direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "to unlock its authority to allow governors to address extreme heat and smoke events, and ask Congress to fund it robustly in an emergency disaster supplemental."
"Second, President Biden should develop a plan to end the reliance on fossil fuels that is causing this crisis," the senator added. "Any plan should start by ending approval of new fossil projects."
"Finally, the president should use his broad and crucial powers by declaring a climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act," Merkley stressed. "Under a climate emergency, the president can move decisively and swiftly to address the climate chaos happening all around us."
"Declaring a climate emergency is the best way for us to holistically protect the environment, public health, the planet, American workers, American consumers, and our national security from the worst effects of climate chaos," he argued.
Merkley's call echoes that of other progressive lawmakers and activists, including 21-year-old Elise Joshi, executive director of the advocacy group Gen Z for Change and a major social media influencer focusing on climate.
On Thursday, Joshi interrupted White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a speech to declare that "a million young people wrote to the administration pleading not to approve a disastrous oil drilling project in Alaska, and we were ignored." The climate campaigner called on Biden—who has approved fossil fuel projects "at a faster rate than the Trump administration"—to "stop approving new oil and gas projects and align with youth, science, and frontline communities."
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Gen Z for Change Leader Interrupts Biden Press Secretary to Demand Climate Action
"Asking nicely hasn't worked out," said Elise Joshi as she stood up during the White House press secretary's remarks.
Jul 28, 2023
Shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden angered climate campaigners by failing to mention fossil fuels in his remarks about new protections for millions of people facing extreme heat, the executive director of a youth-led advocacy group decided to address the administration directly about officials' refusal to end support for the planet-heating oil and gas industry.
Elise Joshi, 21, stood up as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was addressing a crowd at an event hosted by the voter engagement group Voters of Tomorrow. The campaigner spoke about Gen Z for Change's long-stated demand that Biden declare a climate emergency—a move that would unlock numerous resources to fight the climate crisis and expedite the shift away from oil and fossil gas.
"Excuse me for interrupting, but asking nicely hasn't worked out," said Joshi. "A million young people wrote to the administration pleading not to approve a disastrous oil drilling project in Alaska, and we were ignored. So I'm here channeling the strength of my ancestors and generation."
An event staffer approached Joshi, but Jean-Pierre urged them to "let her talk," allowing the campaigner to demand that Biden "stop approving new oil and gas projects and align with youth, science, and frontline communities."
When Joshi was finished speaking Jean-Pierre acknowledged that she had brought up the Willow project, an oil drilling operation that was approved on public land in Alaska this year. The project is expected to produce more than 600 million barrels of crude oil over the next three decades—releasing about 280 million metric tons of heat-trapping carbon emissions.
Joshi also noted that the Biden administration has approved drilling projects at a faster rate than the Trump administration.
As other Gen Z for Change campaigners called on the White House to "declare a climate emergency," Jean-Pierre defended Biden's record by saying he has "taken more action on climate change than any other president," and said she would speak to Joshi privately after the event.
"We can talk through all that he has done and all that he wants to do, and we can also listen to you," said the press secretary.
The White House can show it is listening to young people, said the advocacy group Sunrise Movement, by declaring a climate emergency.
U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), who has also called for far-reaching climate action and at 26 is the youngest member of Congress, applauded Joshi for speaking out.
"I join the movement in asking the president to declare a climate emergency," said Frost.
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Bishop Barber Rebukes Tennessee GOP for Bid to Oust Democratic Lawmakers
"Let's be clear—Republican extremists in the Tennessee Legislature want to silence the voices of dead children."
Apr 05, 2023
Poor People's Campaign co-chair Bishop William J. Barber II on Wednesday stood in solidarity with three Democratic Tennessee state lawmakers facing a Republican-led expulsion effort over protesting for gun reform on the House floor after last week's Nashville elementary school massacre.
"Let's be clear—Republican extremists in the Tennessee Legislature want to silence the voices of dead children," Barber tweeted. "They are impeding three brave legislators, who articulate the concerns of millions, because they aim to keep families whose children were murdered unseen and unheard."
"The blood of murdered children cries out for us, and extremist Tennessee Republicans are content to ignore them."
Republican leadership in the Tennessee House of Representatives began the process of expelling state Reps. Justin Jones (D-52), Gloria Johnson (D-90), and Justin Pearson (D-86) on Monday. The Democrats used a bullhorn to lead chants supporting gun control legislation on the chamber floor while thousands of Nashville-area students rallied outside following the March 27 mass shooting at Covenant School that left three 9-year-old students, three staff members, and the shooter dead.
Noting that Jones, Johnson, and Pearson each represent more than 70,000 Tennesseans, Barber said the lawmakers are "standing on the principles of democracy, freedom of speech and debate, and the right to redress of grievances."
"Expelling them is an attempt to expel the voices of the people," he added.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-25) compared the actions of lawmakers and protesters to the deadly January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, arguing that "if this is not what rises to the level of expulsion then tell me what does."
In an interview with WATE, Pearson retorted: "The thousands of children and adults who marched outside of the people's House are not insurrectionists. My walk, my colleagues' walk to the House floor, was in a peaceful and civil manner, and it was not an insurrection."
Speaking on CNN Wednesday morning, Jones called the effort to oust him and his colleagues "morally insane."
"It's very concerning and it represents a clear and present danger to democracy all across this nation that should trouble us all," Jones added.
Johnson told WKRN Tuesday that "we have had admitted child molesters on the floor, we have had members that have peed in each other's office chairs, we have someone who has illegally prescribed drugs to their cousin-mistress and nothing ever happened to those folks."
"It was really just about 20 seconds of us talking at the mic before it was cut and before recess was called," she added. "Never in a million years did we imagine that they would try to expel members in the body for speaking for their constituents when we had not been allowed to do that previously in the day."
The besieged lawmakers' plight has drawn the attention of national Democratic figures. In a Tuesday media briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre argued that "by doing what they're doing with these three Democratic legislators, they're shrugging in the face of yet another tragic school shooting while our kids continue to pay the price."
A two-thirds vote is required to expel a member of the Tennessee House, which is currently composed of 75 Republicans and 24 Democrats. The vote is slated for Thursday.
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Denying Reports, White House Says 'No Final Decision' Yet on Willow Project
"Anyone who says there has been a final decision is wrong," said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, refuting media reports that the $8 billion "ticking carbon bomb" in Alaska would be imminently approved.
Mar 11, 2023
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday denied reports that U.S. President Joe Biden would imminently approve the Willow Project, saying "no final decisions" have been made on the highly controversial $8 billion ConocoPhillips oil drilling endeavor in northern Alaska slammed by critics as a "climate catastrophe."
"Anyone who says there has been a final decision is wrong," Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday evening after outlets including Bloomberg, CNN, and The New York Times reported that the Biden administration would green-light what would be the single-largest oil operation in the United States.
"President Biden is delivering on the most aggressive climate agenda of any U.S. president in history and spurring an unprecedented expansion of clean energy," the White House spokesperson added.
Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—who supports the project—told the Times that she had not received notification of its approval.
"We are not celebrating yet, not with this White House," she said.
Climate campaigners, Indigenous groups, environmentalists, dozens of Democratic U.S. lawmakers, and others are vehemently opposed to what many have called a "ticking carbon bomb" and a "climate catastrophe."
The Biden administration's own assessment of the project acknowledges that it "would likely incur spills," and the Interior Department has expressed "substantial concerns" about the proposal.
According to the Sierra Club:
Willow is sited in a vast Arctic landscape that provides critical habitat for birds from all over the world as well as animals like the caribou that subsistence hunters rely on to feed their families and communities. Native communities, like Nuiquset, are already dealing with the consequences of oil development in the region, including deteriorating air quality and a spike in respiratory disorders. Last year, a well in Conoco's Alpine Field blew out, spewing methane into the air and endangering residents of Nuiquset. These risks are already here, and Willow only makes them worse.
On Friday, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore called the proposed project "recklessly irresponsible," adding that "we must end the expansion of oil, gas, and coal and embrace the abundant climate solutions at our fingertips."
Len Montgomery, public lands campaign director at Environment America, told Common Dreams via email that "we need our leaders to think long-term. Clean energy, not oil, is our future."
"Allowing a brand new Arctic oil project to break ground in one of our most sensitive ecosystems would be short-sighted," Montgomery argued. "This project will exacerbate climate change and will directly harm caribou and polar bears. We are inspired by the outpouring of opposition against this project from across the country and we will continue our efforts to prevent the chillers, the ice roads, and the well pads from ever encroaching on this pristine area."
Quannah Chasinghorse—a Han Gwich'In and Sicangu/Oglala Lakota land protector, climate justice activist, and fashion model from Eagle Village, Alaska and the tribes of South Dakota—wrote in a CNN opinion article Friday that "ConocoPhillips has claimed that the Willow Project could create thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent ones, along with needed oil, but at what cost?"
"We must change the narrative that the land serves us and only exists so that we can extract resources from it."
"Make no mistake, it will not only be local communities, or even Alaskans, who will feel the negative climate impacts of this project," she continued. "According to an analysis from the Center for American Progress, developing and burning oil from the Willow Project would produce up to 287 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next 30 years. That's equal to the annual emissions of 76 coal power plants—a third of all coal plants in the United States."
"We must change the narrative that the land serves us and only exists so that we can extract resources from it," Chasinghorse asserted. "My elders tell me that if we take care of the land, the land will take care of us. We cannot live without healthy land. Not just us Gwich'in. All of us, everywhere"
"President Biden, stop the Willow Project," she added. "Stop climate chaos, before it's too late"
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The Problem Isn't Just That Trump's a Racist. It's That He Keeps Acting On His Racism
The president has always been a racist. The issue is that he now has the power to make policy based on prejudice.
Jan 12, 2018
I am the daughter of two immigrants who moved our family to the United States for a better life and richer opportunities.
I am an immigrant.
I am a former White House aide.
I am Haitian-American.
And on Thursday, President Trump called my homeland a "shithole."
In a bipartisan meeting concerning changes in immigration policy, President Trump asked why America would want immigrants from "all these shithole countries," specifically referencing Haiti and African countries. He then suggested that United States immigration policy focus instead on bringing in immigrants from countries like Norway.
A quick reminder: Haiti is 95 percent black, and Norway is over 90 percent white.
"Trump entered the business world as a racist, he entered the 2016 election as a racist, and he entered the White House as a racist."
Some might call Trump's comments racially coded, or "racially tinged," as I heard them called yesterday, but the truth is that these statements are overt, transparent, undisguised, unbridled racism. (Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was in the room, said as much on Friday morning.)
And they're not just comments: they're the basis for Trump's mass deportation policy.
That racism underlies this administration's thinking on immigration is thoroughly unsurprising. Donald Trump's legacy is not simply speckled with incidents of racism; it itself is racist. Donald Trump entered the business world as a racist, he entered the 2016 election as a racist, and he entered the White House as a racist.
In 1973, Trump and his father were sued by the Department of Justice for discrimination on the basis of race in one of their housing ventures. (They signed a consent decree settling the suit in 1974, admitting no wrongdoing but agreeing to institute safeguards to prevent future discrimination.)
"Just as Trump's racism is intrinsic to who he is as a person, it too is embedded in his policy choices."
In 1989, five black and Latino teenage boys were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman jogging in Central Park in a case that relied heavily -- perhaps exclusively -- on racist stereotypes of black men sexually assaulting white women. The case came to be known as the Central Park Five. Leading the calls for these children's execution was Donald Trump, who had no connection to the case -- other than that he was racist, and this was an opportunity to show it. Even after the Central Park Five were exonerated by DNA evidence and the confession of the actual perpetrator, Trump refused to apologize.
In 2016 as the Republican nominee for President, Donald Trump called Mexican immigrants "rapists," again relying on tired tropes about black and brown men sexually assaulting white women; he admitted in an unrelated legal case that he'd planned to make that remark in particular. He questioned the competence of a Mexican American judge, Gonzalo Curiel, solely on the basis of his ethnic heritage. And he called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" (and suggested that a Muslim judge could not rule properly in that case).
And, since winning the presidency -- to pick just one example-- his response to a white supremacist rally that culminated in the murder of a peaceful protester was to tell Americans that "there are two sides to a story." He's right, in a way: One side was racist, the other was not. It doesn't take much imagination to guess to which side Trump was more sympathetic.
"While Republicans in Congress feign outrage over Trump's latest astounding racist comment, they continue to step in line to help propel his racist policies."
Given all this, it's not surprising Donald Trump called Haiti -- a country whose independence and freedom was borne out of the first successful slave-led revolution -- a "shithole."
It's also not surprising he said so in the context of immigration policy discussions. Because just as Trump's racism is intrinsic to who he is as a person, it too is embedded in his policy choices, from his attempts to implement a somewhat limited version of the Muslim ban he promised to his insistence on building a wall on the border with Mexico as part of any immigration reform.
Donald Trump's racist biases seemingly led him to end Temporary Protected Status for and order the mass deportation of 200,000 Salvadorans who came here after a pair of major earthquakes, as well as 59,000 Haitians who arrived after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Trump's racism is what underlies and governs his support of tying immigration quotas to "historical norms," widely seen as a way to limit immigration from non-European countries, which is a policy we as a nation have already long ago understood to be racist and discarded, and to end family reunification policies (which Republicans have rebranded "chain migration") which allows families to build new lives in America together.
"The only thing that differentiates Trump from many of his Republican allies is that he is willing to name the source of his motivations aloud, and often in public."
And Trump's racist sentiments seem to be behind his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which granted temporary protection from deportation to undocumented youth who were brought to this country as undocumented children, had no criminal records and met other strenuous requirements.
While Republicans in Congress feign outrage over Trump's latest astounding racist comment, they continue to step in line to help propel his racist policies. And not surprisingly: these policies, such as overthrowing DACA, ending TPS and attempts to limit the number of immigrants arriving from non-European countries, are ones many Republicans in Congress have supported for years.
The only thing that differentiates Trump from many of his Republican allies is that he is willing to name the source of his motivations aloud, and often in public, whereas many Republicans in Congress would rather pander to the white supremacist anti-immigrant movement while pretending that's not what their policy positions are about.
"Every person who stays silent on Donald Trump's racism, regardless of their own race or party, is betraying not just America's communities of color, but the very ideals on which this country was founded."
Today, we find ourselves in a moment of reckoning. "There comes a time," Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "where silence is betrayal." We are in that time.
Every person who stays silent on Donald Trump's racism, regardless of their own race or party, is betraying not just America's communities of color, but the very ideals on which this country was founded. We were founded on the idea that all people are created equal, and while that notion of who counts as a person -- who deserves equality -- has evolved over time, the point remains: America was founded as bastion of freedom, and equality. That is the America I know. That is the America of which my Haitian parents wanted to be a part. That is the America for which we must all speak up.
And a good way to start is for all of us to make it clear to members of Congress that we want them to reject Trump's racism and all the policies that stem from it, to pass a clean DREAM Act now (rather than catering to his racism and agreeing to restrictions on other immigrants to get protection for DREAMers) and to protect from deportation those who had been covered by the TPS program that Trump is determined to end.
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