White House's Karine Jean-Pierre to make history at press briefing

Washington — White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will make history when she steps behind the podium in the James S. Brady Briefing Room on Wednesday, becoming just the second African-American woman to lead a White House press briefing.

Judy Smith, a deputy press secretary for President George H.W. Bush and the inspiration for Olivia Pope on "Scandal," was the first Black woman to do so, when she held a briefing in 1991. Jean-Pierre, who is President Biden's No. 2 press aide under press secretary Jen Psaki, has done five off-camera "gaggles" with press and smaller media availabilities with the traveling press on Air Force One, but she has not yet held an on-camera briefing at the White House briefing room.