The new White House press secretary has been in a long-term relationship and shares a daughter with a prominent CNN correspondent, raising questions on whether the already ethical-challenged and scandal-scarred network can offer impartial coverage.
Karine Jean-Pierre, 44, who takes over from Jen Psaki on May 13 after serving as her deputy, is a partner of CNN’s national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, 55, and the pair share a seven-year-old daughter, Soleil.
And, while the trailblazing and historic nature of her appointment was being celebrated by many – Jean-Pierre is the first black woman and first openly gay person to do the job – others were alarmed by conflicts of interest.
The network has had to weather the firing of Chris Cuomo in December over his involvement in brother Andrew Cuomo’s sex harassment scandal and then two months later dumped network president Jeff Zucker over his secret romance with CNN co-worker Allison Gollust.
Juwan Holmes, associate editor of the online magazine LGBTQ Nation, spent the last two years writing about Jean-Pierre’s work, and said he anticipated the concern.
‘I’m sure there won’t be Cuomo-level conflict of interest violations but expect it to have it bought up in the future…’ he said.
Others quickly slammed the network.
‘This is one of many examples of the corporate media LITERALLY in bed with the government it covers,’ tweeted Alex Marlow, editor-in-chief of Breitbart.
Only Biden would do something like this
Biden didn’t do this. Biden doesn’t even know what day it is. Ron Klain and his posse are responsible.
No, it’s barack hussein obama making all these disasterous decisions
Did Malveaux’s salary substantially increase lately?
What an amazing cabinet sleepy Joe has.
Years ago, if you had a same-sex partner, you couldn’t be in government service (of any kind) due to the risk of blackmail.
The risk is still there folks – even if the closet door has been opened!