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FIRST ON FOX: The White House would not confirm an excerpt from a new book saying one of President Biden’s 2020 campaign advisers called White people “incredibly racist.”
Fox News Digital exclusively obtained the excerpt from the upcoming book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future” by Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin. They write that one of the president’s advisers made the claim in relation to Biden’s decision about making now-Vice President Kamala Harris his running mate.
“In the reckoning of one close adviser to Biden, Harris was ‘in many ways the safest, most obvious choice,’” the book reads. “But to call her merely a Goldilocks pick, this person says, would be to underrate the gumption Biden showed in putting her on the ticket.”
BIDEN’S WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER CALLED ‘SQUAD’ MEMBERS ‘F—ING IDIOTS’: BOOK
The White House would not confirm an excerpt from a new book saying one of President Biden’s 2020 campaign advisers called White people “incredibly racist.”
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
“Harris had scored the best in campaign polling among all the Black women considered for the job, but the data had not suggested she would be a risk-free choice,” the book continues.
“You know, white women are incredibly racist. As are white men,” the adviser said, according to the book. “None of it was safe. It was a risky thing to do. But it was the safest of choices we had.”
When pressed by Fox News Digital about the book excerpt, the White House would not confirm the adviser’s words.
“We respect that there will be no shortage of books written about the administration containing a wide variety of claims,” a White House spokesperson said. “We don’t plan to engage in confirmations or denials when it comes to the specifics of those claims.”
Press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a briefing at the White House, April 20, 2022.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The new book also revealed that a key adviser to Biden, Office of Public Engagement director and senior adviser Cedric Richmond, referred to “Squad” Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., as “f—ing morons” while speaking to a friend.
According to the book, Richmond was the most vocal of Biden’s advisers who were preparing for a progressive party mutiny, blasting the Democrats’ left wing for misreading the 2020 campaign results and not being political savvy in a phone call to a Louisiana ally after his appointment was announced.
Richmond had been targeted by the progressive activist group the Sunrise Movement over his fossil fuel industry ties and was not too happy with Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and the other “Squad” members, going so far as to call them “f—ing idiots.”
Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti also had words for “the Squad,” albeit less harsh than Richmond, telling a Capitol Hill Biden ally that the “problem with the left is they don’t understand that they lost.”
Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily briefing at the White House on Nov. 5, 2021.
(Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
Ricchetti’s remarks came as progressives targeted both Democrats and Republicans over the COVID stimulus bills, viewing them as not giving enough money to citizens and criticizing the lack of funds going to state governments.
The new excerpt also comes as White House press secretary Jen Psaki eyes her exit from behind the podium to spend more time with her kids and transition to her upcoming MSNBC gig.
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Deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will be taking up the mantle as Biden’s spokesperson, but the pick comes with some baggage.
A clip recently re-emerged online of Jean-Pierre calling Fox News “racist” during the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset, as have old tweets of the incoming press secretary claiming the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election was stolen.