Incoming White House press secretary says she detested living in South Carolina
May 11—The soon-to-be White House press secretary says she came to detest South Carolina after living in the state while she worked for John Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign.
Karine Jean-Pierre says in her 2019 book, "Moving Forward: A Story of Hope, Hard Work and the Promise of America," that she didn't like living in South Carolina probably because she lived one floor below a prostitute.
She said most of the Edwards team moved into short-term apartments in an upscale area of Columbia but added that she decided to rent an apartment in a less upscale and more inconvenient neighborhood.
"But I hadn't realized how down-market my apartment was until about 2 a.m. when I heard a lot of foot traffic and squeaking mattress sounds coming from above my head," Jean-Pierre continues. "This wasn't just one couple having sex. This was a door opening, door closing parade of different feet thumping across the floor above me."
She adds that she's not judgmental about sex workers and that she admires the fire and sass of adult film star Stormy Daniels. She says that living below a prostitute in a sketchy neighborhood was scary and that she would lock and relock her deadbolt lock and put a chair under the door to keep an unwanted intruder from coming into her apartment.
"Probably because I wasn't sleeping well, or really at all, I came to detest South Carolina," Jean-Pierre continues. "Everything about it was off-putting. The Confederate flag, the humidity, the covert stares I received every time I ventured into a white neighborhood, the simmering racial hostility that seemed to permeate the very oxygen that I breathed."
She adds that even occasional "syrupy" friendliness from the state's residents would freak her out.
"I would keep thinking, 'What's the agenda behind this overture,'" she says. "I know I am not being fair to an entire state but hey, you know what they said about South Carolina in 1860 when it kicked off the American Civil War: 'Too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.'"
She added that she couldn't let her feelings about the state get in the way of her work for the campaign. Jean-Pierre said she traveled around the state with actor Danny Glover and singer Harry Belafonte.
Jean-Pierre said she wasn't in constant contact with Edwards but remembered him handling a Benedict College student who disrespected him with grace.
"He turned a possible horrible situation into a positive one," she adds.
Jean-Pierre said she left the campaign after Edwards came in a distant third in the South Carolina primary.
"I felt bad about the woman who lived above me, but I could literally taste the relief of getting out of South Carolina," Jean-Pierre says. "I threw my stuff in the trunk and hit the road. I remember catching one last sight of the Confederate flag and just shook my head. You lost, people — get over it! I thought as I accelerated north toward home."
Jean-Pierre later adds that living in South Carolina made her braver.
On May 13, she will become the 35th White House press secretary. Jean-Pierre will be the first African American and first openly gay person to hold the role.
