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Katie Miller sparked a heated moment on CNN after accusing former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre of using her identity as an LGBTQ+ Black woman to advance her career. The tense interview with host Jake Tapper quickly escalated, forcing him to cut to a commercial mid-discussion. Miller, married to Trump aide Stephen Miller, bluntly said Jean-Pierre “is quite incompetent to do the job.” She argued that the former press secretary’s career progress proved that “DEI doesn’t work.” Miller went on, “She is just another evidence that DEI doesn’t work, whether that’s, you know, an air traffic controller, an air pilot, whether that’s your doctor. You know, you want to hire the best for the role, not just based on skin color.” Her comments drew immediate pushback from former Hillary Clinton spokesperson Karen Finney, who asked why Karine Jean-Pierre’s identity qualified her as a DEI hire, but Karoline Leavitt, the current White House Press Secretary, was not labeled the same. “You know, a gay woman is DEI, but a white woman behind the podium right now—which DEI initially started as affirmative action, about affirmatively hiring women and minorities—why is one DEI and the other is not?” Finney asked. Miller shot back without hesitation. “Why did she get the job over John Kirby? Because as everyone has said this week, she is woefully incompetent,” she said. “Why is she trained every four sentences to say she is a Black, queer, LGBTQ woman? Because that’s how she’s been promoted her entire career.” At that point, Tapper awkwardly ended the segment and shifted to a commercial. This confrontation is especially significant as it comes after Jean-Pierre’s widely mocked interview with The New Yorker. The conversation with Isaac Chotiner, which was intended to promote Jean-Pierre’s new book, quickly turned into a rather strange exchange. Critics later described her responses as rambling and incoherent. NEW: Jake Tapper quickly wraps up segment after Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, says Karine Jean-Pierre is only relevant because she has been promoted as a “black queer LGBTQ woman.” Miller: “Why has she trained every four sentences to say she is a black queer LGBTQ woman?… pic.twitter.com/b9OPV4Wnyw — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 28, 2025 Chotiner repeatedly asked Jean-Pierre to clarify her long, circular answers. When asked why she felt Democrats had “betrayed” President Joe Biden, she reportedly circled back to discussing her identity instead. During the Q&A, Jean-Pierre referenced being a Black woman ten times and her LGBTQ status twice. At one point, she told Chotiner, “I wish you could walk in my body and live my life,” after being asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of becoming president. She suggested both Biden and Harris had faced prejudice “from voters and within their own parties.” Chotiner pressed further, saying, “I’m not trying to discount what you’re saying about Harris, but Biden is not an LGBTQ Black woman, and you have the same feelings about how he was treated.” He added, “Sometimes I worry about losing sight of the fact that we’re dealing with a Presidential election here, and the feelings of Joe Biden are less important than the fate of the country.” Jean-Pierre also criticized Democratic leadership, claiming the party has not protected “vulnerable people in the way that it should.” She said, “You also have to think about how I’m thinking about this as a Black woman who is part of the LGBTQ community, and living in this time where I also don’t think Democrats right now are protecting vulnerable people.” When Chotiner challenged her on how that related to Democrats’ concerns that Biden could lose to Donald Trump, she appeared evasive. Her answers included an odd claim that the subtitle of her book, A Look Inside a Broken White House, actually referred to the Trump administration rather than Biden’s. Asked about Biden’s fitness for a second term, Jean-Pierre insisted she had “never witnessed anything from him” that raised doubts. When Chotiner pointed out that “you watched TV like the rest of us, right?” she conceded that Biden “was aging” but described him as “engaged, on top of policy, and challenging his staff.” “‘Absolute Train Wreck!’ Political World Unites to Roast Karine Jean-Pierre’s ‘Embarrassing’ New Yorker Interview” – Mediaite #SmartNews https://t.co/KubyqjDPcH — BJ Rodrigue (@rodrigue_bj) October 28, 2025 Pressed again on whether “it was wise” to believe Biden could serve through 2029, Jean-Pierre said, “It’s not my place to say.” When Chotiner asked what she meant, she replied, “No, no, no. Wait, I’m answering the question. I did not see anything that would cause me concern. That is my answer.” The interview drew immediate reactions across the political spectrum. Semafor reporter David Weigel quipped on X, “Turns out you can do a career-ending interview even after your career is over.” Former congressional investigator Paul D. Thacker added, “When even the New Yorker isn’t buying your bulls**t, where else is a Democrat to go?” Others piled on, calling her “completely unemployable” after the piece. Even journalists such as Chris Cillizza and Washington Post columnist David French expressed confusion. “I honestly don’t know what she was trying to accomplish here,” French remarked. As America is seeing more and more intolerance to the LGBTQ+ community under the Trump administration, the confrontation between Katie Miller and Karen Finney following Jean-Pierre’s incomprehensible word salad interview highlights the complexity of the issue from both sides. While one was too focused on making her gender identity the key point of her personality and career, the other was quick to discard her capabilities based on the way she identified herself. It would be interesting to see if there comes any new update regarding the same from other LGBTQ+ members across the political spectrum.
