Psaki speaks
Press secretary Jen Psaki gets positive early reviews for boosting Biden agenda.
One month on the job, White House press secretary Jen Psaki has made her goals very clear: help the public trust the government, set up a better press shop than former presidents Donald Trump or Barack Obama and get out of the post in about a year.
A veteran political communicator, Psaki, 42, quickly restored the traditional exchanges between the executive branch and reporters after four years of upheaval under Trump and amid the largest economic and health crises in a century. Since her first daily press briefing on Inauguration Day, she’s delivered President Joe Biden’s plans with few obvious stumbles.
Most days, Psaki’s statements are carefully on-message announcements of what Biden’s team is doing to combat COVID-19 packaged in words that worried moms would understand — she’s the mother of two preschool-age children herself.
But there’s one area where the Biden press office already believes they’re being “misunderstood” by the media, Psaki, who grew up in Greenwich and Stamford, Conn., said in an interview Monday.
“There’s been a whole discussion about whether we’re achieving bipartisanship one month into the administration,” she said. “Bipartisanship is pushing for policies that bring the country together that the majority of people feel it will help them and impact them — not creating one party in Washington.”
Psaki speaks to Biden “almost every day,” she said, and through press briefings, statements and social media posts serves as the voice of his administration to the public he said he’s seeking to unify. It’s one of the most public-facing and highly scrutinized roles in the White House.
“Whether you agree or disagree with the president, she’s doing her job well,” said Ari Fleischer, who was President George W. Bush’s White House press secretary from 2001 to 2003. “She’s articulate. She’s a good defender.”
But due to coronavirus, Psaki has yet to experience the most challenging part of the job — a standing-room-only briefing room packed with press hounding for a story, Fleischer said. Briefing room attendance has been capped at about a quarter of its usual capacity.
“In some ways, her ultimate test hasn’t yet taken place,” he said.
Former White House press secretaries Robert Gibbs and Jay Carney, both of whom worked with Psaki in the Obama White House, said Psaki is one of the most experienced and competent communicators in the job.
Psaki was previously Obama’s traveling campaign secretary and during his administration served in almost every role in the White House press office, as well as spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department. She was previously a finalist for the White House press secretary job when it opened in 2014, Gibbs
and Carney confirmed.
Despite her experience, on the night before Biden’s inauguration and her first briefing, Psaki was seized by nerves and the weight of the responsibility, she said.
“I came running into the kitchen and I said to my husband ‘what if they have a lot of questions about Venezuela? I don’t know if I know enough about Venezuela,’” she said, laughing at the memory. “He was like, ‘I don’t know if on the first day that they’re going to ask you a lot about Venezuela.’ He was right, but the point is it’s like cramming for final — there is no end of things you can read, of policies you can know more about.”
While she looked to the past for guidance, Psaki does not want her press office to be a replay of the Obama strategy, she said.
“We’re constantly talking about how we can better connect with the American people directly,” she said. “I’ve done a couple of these where I’ve taken questions from Twitter ... (and) we’re going to look to peel the curtain back a little more behind the scenes, whether it’s during trips or in the White House. We’ll look for ways to augment and build on the press briefing.”
Psaki said her press team is significantly more diverse than when she was working in the White House in 2009. She leads an all-female senior communications team, but less than one month in, a male deputy White House press secretary was accused of making harassing and sexist comments to a female reporter on the job. Psaki suspended him for a week and then, after reporters pressed her on Biden’s no-tolerance policy for harassment, the staffer resigned.
“I’ve been a woman moving my way through a male-dominated industry for almost 20 years, so I am quite sensitive to the sexism that still exists, the language that shouldn’t be used in any conversation,” Psaki said. “I think the fact that he is no longer employed at the White House reflects our view that if we are going to reflect civility and project a commitment to focusing on how we engage with others, that was the only way that could end.”
While she’s savoring the historic moments she gets to be a part of, Psaki said her next goal is setting up someone else to take over the press secretary’s podium.
“One of the reasons I was really excited about this opportunity is I wanted to help support and provide resources to and perspective to and a safety net to another group of people who haven’t had the opportunity like I have to serve in prominent roles in the White House before,” she said. “I’m striving to be somebody who looks for opportunities to lift other people up.”