White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Loses the Room: “I’m done with you right now!”

Louis Conte’s The Truth be Told: Exploring corruption, controversy, and deception in today’s world from the perspective of a forensic psychophysiologist (Polygraph Examiner).

Louis Conte is a professional Polygraph Examiner, investigator, and writer. In addition to the thousands of offenders he interviewed over his thirty-three years in law enforcement, Conte has conducted over fourteen hundred polygraph cases. He uses well-honed observation skills to ferret out the truth. Observation and careful attention to words and behavior often reveal the truth.

I was recently asked by my students to study the body language of White House Press Secretaries. Over the years, the women and men in that role have provided us with plenty of interesting moments. The Press Secretary often has to convey complex information while deftly handling difficult questions from the White House Press Corps. Press Secretaries rarely last more than a few years because the job is so difficult.

Fox News pulled together a selection of the back and forth questioning between White House Correspondent Peter Doocy and Jenn Psaki.

It is entertaining and informative. Like her or not, Ms. Psaki was excellent at her job. She always demonstrated a command of the issues and served the President well. Psaki’s posture and hand movements conveyed confidence and excellent preparation. She maintained excellent eye contact and presided over press briefings with great skill. Psaki knew that Doocy was likely to ask tough questions but never avoided him and always gave a professional response.

I did observe Psaki occasionally pushing her hair back – a ‘self-comforting behavior’ - when Doocy asked questions. She often deflected his questions without really answering them, often deploying humor quite well. Sometimes, Psaki challenged Doocy with questions in return.

Psaki’s job was to defend the administration, take the heat, provide answers that conveyed administration policy and then come back the next day and do it again.

If one wants to study how to handle difficult public speaking environments with command, I suggest studying Jenn Psaki.

For what not to do in a public speaking setting, watch this series of clips featuring current White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Clear differences are obvious.

Because she is so focused on reading the prepared script on her podium – note that her eyes always look down - Jean-Pierre actually answers one question with a prepared answer for another question. This is a by-product of over-reliance on reading written material instead of knowing the subject matter. Because of this, Jean-Pierre does not maintain good eye contact with members of the press corps. This denotes a lack of confidence because Jean-Pierre, from what I can see, is clearly not confident. When she recovers, she does so by looking down and reading, once again, from the prepared statement. When she goes “off script”, one observes her stammering and filling in answers with extraneous verbiage such as “So, look…”, “As you all know…”, “Clearly, they had a conversation…” These are conversation fillers and are used to delay while the answer is developed in the responder’s mind. It can be tedious to listen to and demonstrates poor command.

What follows in the next clip would never happen in a press conference Jenn Psaki presided over.

This was to be Dr. Anthony Fauci’s “last press conference.”  Jean-Pierre loses control of the room.

It seems that members of the White House Press Corps wanted Fauci to answer questions about the origins of the Covid virus and other important issues, but Fauci was not going to answer those questions. He was there with Dr. Ashish Jha and the stated purpose of the gathering was to encourage Covid Vaccine Boosters.  

As we all know, Fauci does not answer difficult questions in an environment he believes is hostile or that he cannot control. However, some journalists wanted to ask meaningful questions and voiced frustration and displeasure about not being allowed to ask them. Members of the press corps shouted questions over each other. Jha wanders around the front of the room looking uncomfortable. Fauci eventually displays a contemptuous smirk.

Jean-Pierre attempts to regain control of the press conference but never does. Her hands reached out to calm the crowd, but the situation was too far gone. She devolves into someone who looks more like a substitute teacher suddenly called into a class of rowdy adolescents than a White House Press Secretary.

Jean-Pierre’s dismissive statement, “I’m done with you right now,” is now infamous. The mayhem reminded me of a Kay and Peale video from a few years ago.

The lesson is clear: poor preparation can lead to embarrassment. The reason for this press conference was ill-conceived. Jean-Pierre had to know that members of the White House Press Corp wanted to ask Fauci meaningful questions, but she did not prepare for this possibility. Instead of a press conference where Fauci exits gracefully, passes the torch to Dr. Jha, and waves goodbye, a press revolt broke out.

Journalists have been stonewalled from asking Fauci tough questions. Truth be told, Jean-Pierre lost control of the room because she was trying to protect Fauci from answering legitimate questions from journalists.

Press Secretaries are often asked to present awkward, difficult issues to the White House Press Corps. I have seen many difficult press briefings over the years with White House Press Secretaries, but I have never seen anything like this.