Jean-Pierre new Biden press chief
She’s 1st Black in post as lead White House communicator
WASHINGTON — Karine Jean-Pierre will take over as President Joe Biden’s next White House press secretary within weeks, replacing Jen Psaki who plans to depart for a job in cable news, the White House announced Thursday.
Jean-Pierre, who has served as Psaki’s top deputy since the start of the administration, will immediately become the public face of the Biden White House and the first Black person to hold the high-profile job of delivering the president’s daily message and fielding questions from the press corps.
She will assume the top spokesperson role at time when the president faces economic and political headwinds, six months before midterm elections. If Republicans retake the House, as many in both parties expect, Jean-Pierre could face numerous questions about GOP investigations into sensitive topics, although the White House counsel’s office is bringing in another communications expert, Ian Sams, to handle such inquiries.
Jean-Pierre will play a central role in shaping the narra- tive of Biden’s presidency, an effort the president and his aides have conceded they have failed to do successfully. The president himself has voiced frustration that he has not been able to convey his accomplishments to the public in an effective way.
As press secretary, JeanPierre will be responsible for holding the daily press briefing at the White House and helping advise Biden and the broader administration on communication and messaging efforts.
She becomes the first Black and openly gay woman to serve as the White House press secretary. In May 2021, Jean-Pierre became the first Black woman in 30 years to address the press in the White House briefing room when she filled in for Psaki, which she has since done on multiple occasions in the past year.
“It’s a real honor just to be standing here today,” JeanPierre
said at her first briefing. “I appreciate the historic nature, I really do. But I believe being behind this podium, being in this room, being in this building, is not about one person. It’s about what we do on behalf of the American people.”
Jean-Pierre will join a growing list of individuals who are breaking barriers under the Biden administration, from Michael Regan, the first Black man to head the Environmental Protection Agency, to White House budget director Shalanda Young, the first Black woman in that role. Vice President Kamala Harris is the first Black woman as well as the first Asian American to hold her position, and Biden just appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.
PSAKI EXITS
Psaki is one of the most recognizable faces in the Biden
administration as a result of her daily appearance at the televised briefings. Psaki has participated in a generally courteous back-and-forth between the White House and the press.
Biden, despite periodically chiding the media, has said he values journalists’ contributions. At a recent gala hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association, Biden joked that “I’m really excited to be here tonight with the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have.”
He also noted that “I’ve always believed that good journalism holds up a mirror to ourselves to reflect on the good, the bad, and the true,” and he paid tribute to journalists who are covering the war in Ukraine and in some cases have died there.
Some conservatives argue that the Washington press corps is too close to the White House. Psaki will join the media herself when she leaves her current hob, joining MSNBC in an on-air position.
Jean-Pierre, a longtime Democratic political operative, worked on both Obama presidential campaigns and served in the Obama White House in the office of political
affairs. In 2016, she worked as deputy campaign manager for Martin O’Malley’s presidential campaign and then joined Move On, a liberal advocacy organization.
On the Biden campaign, she served as chief of staff to then-vice presidential nominee Harris. She joined the White House as principal deputy press secretary.
Jean-Pierre was always viewed as the front-runner to replace Psaki, but other potential candidates for the role emerged in recent weeks, including Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, and John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman.
Psaki’s exit, which has long been planned, comes amid the first wave of departures from the West Wing during Biden’s presidency. Jeff Zients, the coronavirus coordinator; Cedric L. Richmond, director of the White House office of public engagement; Gina McCarthy, the national climate adviser; and Pili Tobar, the White House deputy communications director, have all left or plan to leave in the coming weeks.