Karine Jean-Pierre Says Biden Forgot She Was on Vacation and Called Her Wondering Where She Was

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got candid about a recent vacation she took during which President Joe Biden was trying to figure out where she was.

Jean-Pierre spoke with The Run-Through with Vogue Podcast as part of her Vogue interview about her life and career in Washington.

“It sounds like every moment of your day is spoken for,” Vogue editor Chioma Nnadi said.

“Are there any times that you can turn off your phone? When was the last time that you did that? Do you remember the last time that you were just like, put your phone in the other room?” Nnadi asked.

“No, never done that. And so this is really interesting because I say to people all the time, I’m never by myself. It is rare that I am by myself,” Jean-Pierre replied noting how she’s constantly being briefed in the West Wing.

“Last week I was on vacation, which is really wild to say,” Jean-Pierre said, explaining that she had a chance to visit family and friends in New York.

“It was actually really lovely. Slept in a little bit. And there was one of the days where the president called me and he was looking for me. So he called. He called me on my phone and I was not looking at my work phone. And all sudden I got a call in my personal phone and my assistant was like, ‘Hey, the president is looking for you.’ And I was like, Oh, I guess he wouldn’t know that, you know, who’s on vacation,” Jean-Pierre laughed.

The press secretary explained that she called him back and had to jump into work mode.

“It’s okay for him not to know. And so it was really funny because he called, I picked up on my personal phone and of course, I had to be on it, Right. Because I can’t say to him, ‘Sir, I’m on vacation, you know, I know nothing.’ I had to be like, ‘Yes, sir,’ you know, and answer whatever question that he had,” she said.

“You’re never really off and you’re never really on vacation in these jobs. They are high-profile, big jobs. You’re working for the president of the United States. He can never really turn it off. So, therefore, you can’t really ever turn it off,” Jean-Pierre explained.

Listen above via The Run-Through with Vogue Podcast.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet Newsletter
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!