‘I’m using that word on purpose,’ Jean-Pierre says

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Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called current White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt “deplorable” on Tuesday during an interview on “The View.”

The co-hosts of “The View” played a clip of Leavitt saying that the Democratic Party’s “main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

“I do want to say something to the first clip that you all just showed, which is hearing that, it’s deplorable,” Jean-Pierre said. “And I’m using that word on purpose. Because they don’t seem to understand, this is the Trump White House, that they don’t work for just one man. They work for the American people.”

Jean-Pierre also criticized Leavitt’s viral post of a text change with a HuffPost reporter, where she made a “your mom” joke and said she wouldn’t take any more of his “bulls—” questions.

“The White House press secretary is not about doing online trolling,” Jean-Pierre said. “It is not. It is an honor and a privilege to have that job and to speak on behalf of the most powerful person in the world. And there is a level of respect for the freedom of the press, even if you disagree with them.”

Jean-Pierre, who has said she wants to fix a “broken” political system, said Leavitt was contributing to further political divisiveness. Her use of the word “deplorable” was a reference to Hillary Clinton’s remarks about many of Donald Trump’s supporters in 2016.

“It doesn’t help with the partisanship that we’re seeing right now. And also, that is not what the White House is supposed to be about. It’s supposed to be about every American person, every voter, every citizen, everyone that lives in this country,” Jean-Pierre said.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The former press secretary joined the co-hosts of “The View” to discuss her new book, “Independent,” in which she details her disdain for the Democratic Party over how it forced out her old boss, President Joe Biden, from the 2024 White House race.

Jean-Pierre left the party earlier this year to become an independent. In the book, Jean-Pierre said she was disgusted by how Democrats treated Biden after his poor debate performance against Trump last year, ultimately pressuring him to leave the 2024 White House race.

She has been widely promoting the book, also doing interviews with “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “CBS Mornings” and NPR this week.

Even Colbert, a fervent Biden supporter, was skeptical on Monday of her continued defense of Biden’s mental acuity in office.

“You’re talking to a guy who helped raise $25 million for Joe Biden in March of that same year,” Colbert told Jean-Pierre. “And three months later, I saw a guy who I had not seen backstage at the benefit that I did. It seemed like a dramatically different person. And at 81 years old, that’s not entirely unexpected. You can imagine why people got so worried.”