JUDY WOODRUFF: Many of our
viewers known Karine Jean-Pierre
as a Democratic strategist and
one of our analysts.
In her book "Moving Forward,"
she shares her personal story
about growing up the eldest
child of Haitian immigrants.
I sat down with her recently
and began by asking her how
her upbringing shaped her life.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, Author,
"Moving Forward": That immigrant
upbringing, growing up in New
York, it shaped everything
and anything that I'm about,
right, who -- the person that I
sit here -- that sits
before you, my hard
work, my perseverance,
the way I meet, see
people and talk to people.
It has made me who I am,
the type of mother that
I have become, partner
that I have become.
My parents, Haitian
immigrants, it's like
the immigrant experience.
They came here for the
American dream that in
many ways eluded them.
They still live check to check,
but in their eyes, because I
made it to the White House,
because their daughter went to
Columbia, they have received it.
So it's been interesting
watching their experience.
They have been knocked down
, and they get back up.
And so, when I'm knocked
down, I get back up.
Some that experience with
them growing up has really
made me so much stronger.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Your family is
threaded through so much of this
book, your father a taxi driver,
but trained as an engineer.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
Exactly.
Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And your
mother had been a nanny
and then a caregiver.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE:
Yes, a caregiver.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Both of them
very involved in you life.
High expectations for you.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE:
High expectations.
And it was overwhelming.
Being the oldest of three
siblings, I had to take care
of my siblings while my parents
were working six,
seven days a week.
I had to feed them.
And I'm 8 years older than my
sister, 10 years older than my
brother, so I was pretty young
when they were toddlers, and
make sure their food was cooked,
make sure diapers were changed,
because they had to
provide for the family.
And all of that heaviness,
all of that responsibility led
to some dark times as well.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You write
about secrets in the family.
There were things your
family didn't talk about.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You write,
Karine, about your own struggles
at points in your life with
emotional difficulties, your
own sexuality, coming out as a
gay woman, and how your parents
responded to that.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
Yes.
So one of the things -- there
are so many things that I
bring up that you just laid
out perfectly, but one
of them is mental health.
And one of the reasons I talk
about it in the book is because
there is a stigma connected
to mental health.
And people don't want to talk
about what they go through
when they are in dark times and
they don't know how
to get out of it.
And because of the pressures
of me growing up, and just
feeling like an outsider all
through my growing up, my young
-- young days, there was a
time where I attempted to take
my life.
I attempted suicide.
And it was a dark, dark
time in my life, clearly.
And so I put that in the book.
I put it in the book because
I want to help people.
I want anybody who has ever
felt that way to feel like
there is a way out and to know
there is a way out.
JUDY WOODRUFF: What do you
think got you through that?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: I think back
again -- even though there was
pressures from the community,
pressures from my family that
I put on to myself really in
many ways, I think because,
growing up, my parents always
instilled in me that I was
going to survive, that I was
going to be a star, that I
was going to do anything that
I wanted, somehow, somewhere,
that was still there, even
though I was so down and out.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you
kept pushing through.
You finished college.
You went on to graduate school,
ended up going into politics.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Why
do you think you did?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: I
think I just persevered.
I think it's the being knocked
down and going back up again.
I now teach at
Columbia University,
an Ivy League school.
I have to mentor and teach
young people and help them
get through their lives.
And I have a 5-year-old.
My partner and I have this
beautiful 5-year-old daughter.
And I think that helps
me persevere, and that
helps me understand,
what kind of world do
I want to leave for her?
JUDY WOODRUFF: You talk about
advice to young people, that
they don't have to work at the
White House, which you
said, or the state capitol.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: That they
can make a difference
in politics and policy
at the grassroots level.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
I believe that they can.
The way they're going to make
that change is if their voice
is in the fight, if they
step into the political arena,
whether it's working on that
issue, or deciding to run
themselves, or working
for a candidate that
they really believe in
and want them to decide
their future.
And I tell that in my book.
And I lay out the blueprint and
the playbook for doing that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: In fact, there
is a point of the book where
you have not only worked for
President Obama.
You worked for Anthony Weiner.
You worked for John Edwards.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: I did.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Politicians
who didn't exactly end
up in the right place.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And it's
an interesting lesson
you learned, isn't it?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
And I say in my book, don't
put people up on a pedestal.
Right?
Care about the issues, for
sure, but don't put people on
a pedestal, because people are
flawed.
We are flawed individuals.
And I also tell young people,
if you do end up working for
a flawed candidate, make sure
you -- you got to make
sure you take care of
your career as well.
Right?
You have to make sure that you
navigate through those waters,
so that you can continue your
career.
And so it's just a fine line
the walk on, but you have to
continue sticking with what
you believe in.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You are
political strategist.
You're a Democratic
political strategist.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Yes.
Yes.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So I'm not going
to let you get away without
asking you, how do you believe
Democrats can defeat
Donald Trump next year?
Do you think they have a
good chance of winning?
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: I do.
And the reason why is because
we have been energized the past
three years, we, the Democratic
base, the resistance, if you
want to call it that, and
we have shown up in races in
big ways, in historical numbers.
And there is an energy there.
When you look at the polling
and it says, what do Democrats
want the most, they want
somebody who can
beat Donald Trump.
That's the thing.
Whoever is the nominee has to
understand it's going to take a
movement to beat Donald Trump.
It's not going to be
easy, but we can do it.
You got to get young people out.
You got to get people of color,
black voters, black women
who have been the backbone of
the Democratic Party.
You have to get women,
educated white women out.
You have to get everybody.
You have to get that coalition
and people who don't normally
vote or don't think their
vote matters.
You have got to convince
them to get them out.
It's going to take a movement.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The book is
"Moving Forward: A Story of
Hope, Hard Work, and the Promise
of America."
Thank you.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: Thank you.