Just In: Jen Psaki Says She Won’t Leave Biden Press Secretary Post After a Year

Tommy ChristopherMay 27th, 2021, 8:37 am
 
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 22: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki arrives for her daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing room at the White House on March 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. Psaki fielded questions about U.S.-China relations, the spike in children crossing the southern border from Mexico and the ongoing government response to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Wednesday’s Karine Jean-Pierre-led briefing has the political media buzzing anew about a successor for current White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who has told colleagues that she won’t be leaving after a year.

Ms. Jean-Pierre made history Wednesday as the first Black woman to conduct a White House briefing in 30 years, the first to do so in the on-camera briefing age, and the first out gay woman to conduct a briefing as well.

The principal deputy press secretary earned raves from her White House colleagues and others.

Jean-Pierre also got a visit from Judy Smith, the first Black woman to brief for the White House, under President George H.W. Bush.

And Psaki herself told Politico’s West Wing Playbook that “It is no surprise that Karine absolutely crushed it today with an expansive base of knowledge and her own graceful style.”

KJP’s performance renewed the speculation about Psaki’s eventual replacement, as political media types read into the nod a rather obvious pair of facts: that principal deputy press secretaries do briefings from time to time, and that a principal deputy press secretary would be heavily considered for promotion when a press secretary departs.

West Wing Playbook has taken the lead in pushing Psaki replacement intrigue, and now reports that Psaki is telling colleagues she won’t be leaving after a year:

A source familiar with the internal machinations said that there aren’t any real discussions about Psaki’s successor yet. Psaki has also told colleagues that she is now happy to stay on longer and won’t just walk out the door at her one-year mark, meaning that would-be successors may have to wait much longer than they expected.

But that one-year deadline, and the entire Psaki Psweepstakes intrigue, is mostly concocted anyway. The narrative was touched off by an innocuous and rather obvious statement that Psaki made to David Axelrod earlier this month, essentially ballparking her eventual tenure at about a year — which quickly morphed into a story about the race to find her replacement.

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