White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Cancels 'The View' Appearance to Support Writers' Strike

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre canceled her scheduled appearance on ABC's The View on Wednesday. She cited her support for the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America as the reason. Due to the unscripted nature of the show, The View has continued to broadcast new episodes amid the ongoing strike. Hosts like Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sunny Hostin, and Sara Haines engage in discussions, debates, news coverage, and guest interviews. Despite this format, the talk show does employ specific writers represented by WGA East. Jean-Pierre opted out of the talk show in solidarity with such employees, reports Deadline.

“Out of respect for striking writers, we pulled down our scheduled appearance on The View. President Biden and his entire administration sincerely hope that the writers' strike gets resolved — and writers are given the fair deal they deserve — as soon as possible,” a White House official said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, The View promoted Jean-Pierre as a guest on Tuesday. However, her scheduled appearance was replaced by Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall's appearance. During this morning's broadcast, there was no verbal mention of Jean-Pierre's cancellation on The View. However, CBS News White House Correspondent Ed O'Keefe tweeted later in the day that the White House had canceled Jean-Pierre's appearance the previous night after discovering that The View employs members of WGA East. The strike has been on since May 2, 2023, as per Vulture.

Although the White House has not directly engaged in the negotiations concerning the strike, President Biden shared his thoughts on the issue in May when he hosted a screening of the Disney+ series American Born Chinese. Biden said, “I sincerely hope the writers' strike in Hollywood gets resolved, and the writers are given a fair deal that they deserve as soon as possible. This is an iconic, meaningful American industry, and we need the writers and all the workers and everyone involved to tell the stories of our nation, the stories of all of us.” This garnered applause from the audience and the show's creator. 

Dermot Mulroney made headlines last week when he decided to walk out of the set of The View as a gesture of solidarity with the striking writers. Mulroney had been in the midst of promoting his new Disney+ Marvel series Secret Invasion at the time.

Since May, numerous screenwriters affiliated with the WGA have been engaged in protests because the union and the trade association representing Hollywood studios and production companies have failed to secure a contract on certain demands. The WGA presented reasonable demands, which included requesting higher minimum sales, shorter exclusive contracts for released content, and safeguards against the replacement of writers with AI, considering the dominance of streaming in the entertainment industry. These requests may appear straightforward, but the studios have not agreed to these terms. As a result, the writers have been on strike ever since.