White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre managed to throw a little shade while answering a question about Democrat Marianne Williamson’s recent decision to challenge Joe Biden in 2024.
It happened after a reporter asked Jean-Pierre if the president was “frustrated” that the self-help author was running against him rather than giving him a clear field for his reelection bid.
Jean-Pierre said that the White House is “just not tracking that,” before making a joke that tweaked Williamson’s New Age sentiments.
“We’re just not tracking that,” she said, before cracking up reporters by saying, “If I had a, what’s it called? A little globe here, a crystal ball, then I can tell you, a Magic 8 Ball, whatever. If I could feel her aura. I just don’t have anything to share on that.”
Williamson famously suggested creating a Department of Peace when she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and argued against focusing on the “wonkiness” of policy details rather than trying to stop what she called then-President Donald Trump’s “dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred.”
However, she told Yahoo! News in 2019 that her image as a “crystal woo woo lady ... has no relation to reality.
She added: “I’ve never had a crystal, I’ve never written about crystals. I’ve never talked about crystals. I’ve never had a crystal onstage with me.”
Some Twitter users found Jean-Pierre’s comment as funny as the reporters did.
Others felt Jean-Pierre’s remarks verged on insulting Williamson’s spiritual beliefs.
HuffPost reached out to Jean-Pierre for her reaction to these comments, but she did not immediately respond.