White House press secretary Jen Psaki is already talking about leaving her job at the White House a year from now. By following the podcast interview with her former boss, Barack Obama Campaign Manager David Axelrod
“I think it’s going to be time for somebody else to have this job, in a year from now or about a year from now,” During the Obama administration before eventually taking the White House communications director job at the White House Psaki previously worked for the Obama campaign as a press aide and also served as a spokesperson at the State Department.
She stated when she first spoke with Biden’s team about taking the press secretary job, she agreed to do it for roughly a year. Psaki recalled “I remember thinking, thank God I didn’t get that job because I would not have been ready at that moment,”. Psaki said she was also a runner-up nominee to replace Carney when Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest took the place in 2014.
“Between now and then, I’m sort of like always a bridesmaid and definitely a bride,” she said, adding she was “devastated” that Earnest got named to substitute Carney at the White House. Psaki said that “almost every day” she had what Axelrod described as an “Oh shit” moment where she realized should have landed her talking points better.
She said that at age 30 she “never would have predicted” that she would have the job of White House press secretary under President Joe Biden. She also received disapproving caustically dismissing a question about the “Space Force,” which she referred to as a “plane question.”
“My intention was never to begrudge the men and women serving in the Space Force,” she said, noting it was a “good lesson” about her job in the future.