In June 2024, messages appeared in Telegram channels that instead of Karine Jean-Pierre, a certain bearded man had been appointed to the post of official representative of the US President. We checked if this is true.
June 19 in the TV presenter’s Telegram channel Olga Skabeeva (74,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), the following publication appeared: “A new press secretary was introduced at the White House. Now instead of the black lesbian Karine Jean-Pierre there will be a bearded man in a dress.” The post contains a 12-second video that shows a man behind a podium with microphones, and the emblem of the US presidential administration is visible behind him. The recording presents the following dialogue between the hero of the video and his interlocutor behind the scenes:
— Welcome to the White House, I’m ready to answer all your questions!
- Is it true that you have real hair?
- Yes, I assure you that this is not a wig!
Following Skabeeva, about fifty channels published the same posts, including “Dmitry Vasilets"(157,000 views), "Sheikh Tamir"(138,000), "Tucker Carlson for Russia"(62,000), "Pirates of the Black Sea: Fascist Pokemon" (61,000) and "Tucker Carlson in Russian"(51,000). Similar publications can be found in “VKontakte", where is the public post "Tucker Carlson in Russian» received more than 50,000 views, in TikTok, as well as on some news websites And YouTube. In the TV presenter’s Telegram channel Vladimir Solovyov (218,000 views) published a longer, 20-second version of the viral video with the following caption: “The White House auditioned for the position of the new press secretary.”
In May 2022, it became known that US President Joe Biden appointed new White House press secretary. Jen Psaki's place was taken by her deputy Karine Jean-Pierre, who became the first black woman and the first representative of the LGBT+ community in her new position. However, in June 2024, there were no official reports that Jean-Pierre would leave his position. In addition, none of the publications mentioned above mention the name of the new press secretary. In the subtitles for the video from Solovyov’s post, this person was called JBN.
His personality installed fact checkers of the Georgian project “Myth Detector”. The man from the viral video turned out to be an American stylist and hairdresser Jonathan Van Ness (in the video he is called by his initials JVN). He is best known as co-host and an expert on the new version of the reality show released on Netflix Queer Eye (“Straight Through the Eyes of a Gay Man”; the original program was shown on American television back in the early 2000s). According to Van Ness, he is non-binary, meaning he does not identify as either a man or a woman. Therefore, in relation to celebrities uses pronouns he/she/they, but, by his own admission, still prefers masculine
June 18 (Moscow time - on the night of June 19) US Vice President Kamala Harris published on social network X, a video of the creators and participants of both versions of Queer Eye visiting the White House “to discuss the hard-fought progress made by the LGBTQI+ community over the past 20 years.” In her post, Harris thanked the guests for the insightful conversation and praise for the White House. However, the meeting itself took place a few days earlier, since the vice president shared joint photographs on the night of June 14, and the media wrote about the event the day before. One of the leading original show on your social networks clarifiedthat the meeting was held on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the program.
Both in Harris’ video and in other photographs it is noticeable that Van Ness is wearing the same dress as in the video distributed on the RuNet.
Apparently, during their visit to the White House, the guests also visited the room where the press secretary of the US President holds briefings, and Van Ness held an impromptu press conference with answers to comic questions. Full version The viral video was published on the stylist’s Instagram profile; it lasts 36 seconds, and laughter can be heard behind the scenes for a significant part of this time. In addition, it was removed from the podium sign with the inscription "The White House, Washington". However, the media reportThat visit to Harris has angered critics of the Biden administration.
It is noteworthy that before the publication of the video about the “new press secretary” on Skabeeva’s channel wrote about Queer Eye stars visiting the White House. However, in that post, for some reason, the reality show hosts were called “actors of the series” and added that Harris called “men in dresses,” although only Van Ness was in a similar outfit. That is, it cannot be ruled out that the news was initially presented on the TV presenter’s channel as a joke, which other users later spread without appropriate context.
Cover photo: video screenshot @jvn (Instagram)
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