Karine Jean-Pierre, former press secretary to President Joe Biden, told a sold-out audience "the movement for civil rights and social justice is far, far from over” during a keynote address Friday night at Illinois State University.
Jean-Pierre, the first Black and openly queer person to serve as White House press secretary, spoke at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Dinner.
“I’m honored to be here with all of you today. Students, faculty, staff, community members who have gathered not just to remember Dr. King but to recommit ourselves to the work he began," she said, noting the shared effort of Dr. King’s legacy is often remembered through comforting quotes.
However, she said Dr. King did not live through a comfortable time.
“He challenged institutions, he disrupted systems, he demanded action and he made it clear that remembrance without responsibility is empty,” she said. “Dr. King asked a question that still confronts us today. Life’s most persistent and urgent question, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
Jean-Pierre, also a senior advisor in the Biden White House, reflected on her upbringing as the daughter of Haitian immigrants and said the story of her parents reminded her of Dr. King’s mission. Her father was a taxicab driver and her mother worked multiple jobs in New York City.
“When my father and I became U.S. citizens, I watched him vote of the first time in decades. I watched a man who had once lived under dictatorship reclaim his voice in a democracy,” she said. “That moment taught me something essential, and this is really important, folks — democracy is not guaranteed. It survives only when people participate.”
Split from the Democratic party
Last year, Jean-Pierre announced she had broken away from her label as a Democrat. With the release of her new book, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, she detailed the ways in which Democrats failed her.
Since that time, the party has managed to gain some political victories, including the off-year elections in New York City and the states of Virginia and New Jersey. However, the party has been part of some failures, too, like the government shutdown that became the longest in U.S. history.
Speaking to WGLT prior to her address, Jean-Pierre said the party still has a long way to go to reclaim a position of trust and strength.
“I think this is a time, in this moment, the Democratic Party needs to behave as an opposition party. These are not normal times, our democracy is hanging by a shoestring,” she said. “People are afraid, people are scared, people are worried.”
Jean-Pierre said she was glad to see Democrats found victory in the first year of President Trump’s second term, but she did not credit winning to their efforts.
“…It was because of the people. It wasn’t because of the messaging of the party,” she said. “And so, we need to see so much more happening in Congress, and people need to feel as if there is hope that Congress can stand up for them. It is a co-equal branch, and it is not behaving as a co-equal branch, and it’s both parties.”
She said Republicans are equally to blame for the state of Congress. As for the Republican party, post-Trump, it has some deep soul searching to do, said Jean-Pierre.
“We need leadership from the Republican party. We, again, it takes a two-party system in order to have a democracy,” she said. “And right now, you have a party that is not functioning, that is bending the knee, that is not speaking up, that is not showing leadership.”
Instead of speaking out, some Republicans are instead choosing to retire, she said, adding Trump’s party is not the one led by former Presidents George Bush or Ronald Reagan.
“This is a party that has, sadly, lost their voice, and they need to figure out, how are they going to regain who they once were,” she said. “You think about conventional Republicans back in 2004, they would be standing up for the rule of law, they would be standing up for democracy.”
Hard to watch
Jean-Pierre said the past year of the Trump administration has been hard to watch. She called Minneapolis “ground-zero” for Trump’s aggressive enforcement of Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] policy, adding organizations and municipalities outside the federal government need to step up.
“Honestly, I think what’s going to happen is, and what we’ve seen in Minnesota, it’s going to take local government to try to make sure that they’re protecting folks who are out there peacefully protesting,” she told WGLT.
She said Thursday's arrest of former CNN anchor Don Lemon and three others for covering anti-ICE protests was not okay.
“It is not okay for the freedom of the press, for journalists to be arrested for reporting,” she said. “But it is not okay if it was because they were reporting, which is what it was seemingly, and they were doing their jobs as journalists.”
Again, Jean-Pierre said it was a matter not limited to political parties — it is not about what Democrats or Republicans think.
“This is about what we as people, as Americans who live in this country and understand the freedoms and having the importance of having our rights and respecting, you know, in this case, the freedom of the press,” Jean-Pierre said.
“We should all be really worried and scared of what is happening and how the Department of Justice [DOJ] is being used to go after ... presumed enemies, political enemies.”
Instead, she said the DOJ should be an independent body used to protect Americans and those living in this country.
Jean-Pierre said she hopes future journalists remain passionate about their careers, instead of doubtful or fearful about them.
ISU president Dr. Aondover Tarhule said Friday's MLK Jr. Cultural Dinner broke the event’s attendance record, with more than 650 guests registered.
