Jen Psaki had been White House press secretary less than two weeks when a reporter asked whether Twitter’s ban of Donald Trump had made President Joe Biden’s life easier. “We don’t spend a lot of time talking about or thinking about President Trump here,” she responded, then added for emphasis: “Former President Trump.” It was an early indication of what was to come with this press secretary. Her briefings were professional and typically congenial, but could turn pointed in a hurry. The sessions were informative but generally lacked the drama to draw big ratings on cable television. Psaki, whose last day on the job is Friday, has answered reporters’ questions nearly every weekday of the almost 500 days that Biden has been in office. That makes her a top White House communicator and perhaps the administration’s most public face after only the president and Vice President Kamala Harris. Her departure could complicate how Biden’s message gets out at a critical time for him, at least in the short term. “Anybody with a brain would want her to stay because she’s so good,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a political science professor emerita at Towson University and director of the White House Transition Project, a nonpartisan group that tries to help streamline the transfer of power from one administration to the next. Succeeding Psaki is Karine Jean-Pierre, the first Black woman and openly LGBTQ person to be White House press secretary. She takes over as the administration is navigating inflation and Russia’s war with Ukraine, and as the Democratic Party is bracing for November election losses that could erase its control of Congress. The White House says Jean-Pierre, who has been Psaki’s chief deputy, will bring strong personal expertise and personality to the briefing room. She knows Biden well and has been a longtime adviser. “I’ve had the honor of working with many White House press secretaries and no one has done the job as well as Jen Psaki,” White House chief of staff Ron Klain, a veteran of the Obama and Clinton administrations, said in a statement. “I will miss her terribly as a colleague and friend, but I know we are in great hands with Karine following her lead.” Psaki has not denied reports she is heading to MSBNC, where on-air personalities are mostly sympathetic to Biden and where Jean-Pierre herself is a former analyst. Such a move will do little to alter perceptions of Psaki on the left or right. Democrats see her as a champion of their causes; conservatives says she is standoffish. Groups cheering Psaki are common across social media, including #Psakibomb, which has more than 22 million views on TikTok. Psaki’s sisters wore sweatshirts with the slogan during family Zoom calls, though it was more about gently poking fun at their sibling than making a political statement But Psaki angered Republicans by likening the party’s supporters who adhere to Trump’s fabrications about the 2020 election to “silent lemmings. ” When she quipped early in her tenure that she did not know who at the White House could answer questions about Space Force, House Republicans said she was belittling a new branch of the armed services that is working to counter Chinese threats. More recently, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former Trump press secretary now running for Arkansas […]

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