Karine Jean-Pierre delivers a spiteful snub at her last press briefing as she breaks down in tears

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre broke down in tears at Wednesday's White House press briefing even as she secretly blocked a rival from speaking at the last media availability of President Joe Biden's administration.

She spent several minutes at the briefing thanking her colleagues, her family and the president, noting this was the administration’s 537th press briefing and her 306th briefing. 

She said she hoped her visible, public role was an 'inspiration to many young girls out there.'

She also gave a shout out to her daughter, Soleil, with her ex Suzanne Malveaux

'To my lovely, amazing daughter, you have gone too many nights without me being around and without me being there for school drop offs and without your mama around,' she said, tearing up.

Noting she calls her daughter 'pudding,' she added: 'I can't wait to spend more time with you pudding.'

She also thanked all her press staff - both past and present - who had crowded in the room to see the last briefing. That list included former press secretary Jen Psaki.

However, there was one notable absence in the room: National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. 

Kirby usually briefs reporters on foreign affairs but was not at the podium to answer questions about the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Jean-Pierre blocked Kirby, her longtime rival for the podium, from attending, a source familiar told Dailymail.com, because she wanted to keep the attention on herself. Fox News was first to report the snub.

Kirby and Jean-Pierre's rivalry goes back to her first days on the job, when some senior officials quietly expressed concern that she needed more experience before taking the role as the administration's public face.

Her experience was as a spokeswoman for MoveOn.org and political analyst on MSNBC. In contrast, Psaki had briefed reporters on camera at the State Department and was familiar with the verbal sparing that comes with high-profile spokesperson role.

So Biden promoted Kirby, then spokesman for the Pentagon, to the White House, giving him the job of speaking on international matters. Kirby, a retired Navy admiral, also had experience being spokesman for the State Department and was a respected voice on foreign affairs.

But tensions between him and Jean-Pierre were visible from the start. The White House press secretary - the first black woman and openly gay person to hold the job - appeared uncomfortable when Kirby spoke. She hovered next to him when he took questions from the podium.

The duo split time taking questions after the Israel-Hamas war began 15 months ago. Kirby quickly became a favorite of President Biden and was eventually promoted to assistant to the president - the same level as Jean-Pierre. 

Additionally, Kirby had privately said he'd like the press secretary job one day and he was frustrated that Jean-Pierre picked the reporters who questioned him at the briefing. She did not do that for National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Kirby's boss, when he was at the podium. Sullivan calls on his own reporters.

Jean-Pierre was asked on Thursday why Kirby, the spokesman for foreign affairs, wasn't at the last press briefing of the administration to answer questions on the ceasefire deal, which is a major accomplishment for Biden.

She punted, noting she had said White House envoy for the Middle East envoy Brett McGurk would hold a briefing call for reporters later on Thursday.

'I just mentioned that Brett McGurk is going to be holding and National Security Council is holding up a call. I think that's going to be really important. They will talk more about the implementation of this. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was just here two days ago, on Monday, and I think kind of laid out a really good framework for all of this,' she said.

'Brett McGurk, he is on the ground. He has all of the information,' she added. 'So he's going to have a lot more information than any of us here will have, because he's been on the ground.'

The National Security Council held a phone briefing for reporters shortly after Jean-Pierre's on-air press briefing.

Reporters were told to refer to the official on the call as a 'senior administration official.'