KJP to Doocy in Final Briefing: “How Will I Fill That Void Without You?”; Can’t Name Democratic Party Leader

On January 13, 2025, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre held one of her final briefings before the end of the Biden administration. The session produced several memorable moments: a playful farewell exchange with Fox News’s Peter Doocy, a painfully awkward inability to name the leader of the Democratic Party, a defense of Biden’s legacy, and a question about disinformation surrounding the California wildfires.

The Farewell Exchange

The briefing opened with an unexpectedly warm exchange between Jean-Pierre and Doocy, who had been frequent sparring partners over the previous two years.

“If I don’t see you again in the briefing, thank you for all that — you could have stopped taking the hard questions years ago, and you didn’t, so we appreciate that,” Doocy told Jean-Pierre.

Jean-Pierre responded with a flirtatious quip that drew audible reactions from the press corps: “Over two years, my friend, this is — let’s say one last dance, right? I don’t know how I’m gonna fill my dance card now. How will I fill that void without you?”

The briefing room erupted. “Oooo!” reporters exclaimed. April Ryan added: “He’s getting red too, look at him.”

“Start some rumors in here, I guess,” Jean-Pierre said with a laugh.

”Who’s the Leader of the Democratic Party?”

Doocy then pivoted sharply, noting that “a week from now, it’s all over” and asking the question that would define the exchange.

“Between next Monday and 2028, who’s the leader of the Democratic Party?” Doocy asked.

Jean-Pierre visibly struggled. “Oh my goodness. Wow. Um — that is, honestly, that is for people much smarter than I to make that assessment, that decision. Obviously, voters will decide. That is not something for me to decide.”

She tried to anchor herself in the present: “I could say, right now, in this moment, in this room, as I’m looking at the clock as it’s counting down because we have to leave shortly, you have the President — President Joe Biden, who is obviously the President and the leader of the Democratic Party. I cannot predict the future, so that is not something that I’m going to do from here.”

Doocy pressed: “So, no leader of the party?”

“That’s not what I said,” Jean-Pierre replied.

Doocy continued: “Well, it’s President Biden and it’s not Vice President Harris —”

“Oh my gosh. I regret — I’m regretting this right now,” Jean-Pierre said.

Doocy pushed further: “And there’s no chair of the DNC — so, it’s nobody!”

“That’s not what I said,” Jean-Pierre repeated, now clearly flustered. “You asked me about what 2028 is going to look like. Between now and 2028 — I can’t — post — obviously, this President’s tenure, that’s not for me to decide. That’s not for me to speak to. I could only speak about the here and now, and that’s why I appreciate this job and what I’m doing right now.”

The exchange laid bare the Democratic Party’s leadership vacuum in the wake of Biden’s one-term presidency and Kamala Harris’s defeat in the 2024 election. Jean-Pierre’s inability to name any figure beyond Biden himself underscored the party’s lack of a clear standard-bearer heading into the next political cycle.

”He Deserves Some Respect”

Doocy followed up by referencing Biden’s stated intention not to disappear from public life, asking whether that contradicted the message voters had sent.

“President Biden says that he’s not going to be out of sight, out of mind. But isn’t that what voters basically said that they wanted — is him gone?” Doocy asked.

Jean-Pierre pushed back firmly, defending Biden’s five decades of public service: “This is a president that has served more than 50 years, who has given all of himself as a public servant, whether as a senator, as a local elected official, as vice president, and now as president. I think anybody who has served that long and does it from their heart and soul because they believe this country deserves so much more, they believe that the American people deserve more and has worked day in and day out and certainly as president in the last four years, I think deserves some respect. I think he deserves some respect, and so I’ll leave it there.”

Disinformation and the California Fires

Reuters’s Andrea Shalal asked Jean-Pierre about disinformation surrounding the California wildfire response, specifically whether foreign countries were amplifying misinformation as they had during Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Jean-Pierre said she did not have evidence of foreign involvement but condemned misinformation broadly: “What I will say about misinformation, disinformation — it is incredibly dangerous, as we all know. Certainly we’ll continue to call that out, and it is something that needs to stop.”

She added: “It is dangerous. It puts people’s lives at risk and it needs to stop.”

Key Takeaways

• In her final briefing, KJP shared a playful farewell with Peter Doocy, telling him: “How will I fill that void without you?” and joking, “Start some rumors in here, I guess.”
• When Doocy asked who would lead the Democratic Party between January 20 and 2028, Jean-Pierre was unable to name anyone, eventually saying “I’m regretting this right now.”
• Jean-Pierre defended Biden’s legacy, saying anyone who has “served more than 50 years” in public life “deserves some respect.”
• On disinformation about the California fires, Jean-Pierre said she had no evidence of foreign involvement but called misinformation “incredibly dangerous.”