Longtime Obama aide Jen Psaki leaving White House
White House Deputy Communications Director Jennifer Psaki will leave the White House on Thursday to become the head of the Washington D.C. office of Global Strategy Group, a public affairs and research firm.
Politico reports that Psaki is one of President Barack Obama's longest-serving aides, and has been known as "an island of calm and karma aboard the campaign plane and later in the tumultuous West Wing." Psaki, 32, began working for the Obama campaign as deputy press secretary in February 2007.
A person close to Psaki said she hopes to continue supporting the president on the outside as a surrogate. The decision was incredibly difficult for Psaki, but she was attracted by the opportunity to build and run her own team. Administration officials made a strong push for her to stay.
Psaki will start at Global Strategy Group on October 17.
“There is no smarter or better person in politics today than Jen Psaki," White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told Politico. "For four and a half years, Jen has been an absolutely essential member of the president’s team. Everyone at the White House — the president, the staff, the reporters and especially me — will miss her contributions to all of us and the country.”
Psaki told The Washington Post that working at the White House was “an honor and a privilege," and said that “I will always feel a great level of gratitude for this experience.”
The Post reports that Psaki's departure "comes at a tough time for a White House, which is battling a creeping narrative — started by the new Ron Suskind book 'Confidence Men' — that it is an unfriendly workplace for women."
“The big secret is there is an incredible bond between the senior women in the White House,” Psaki said. “These are women who I have had the pleasure of getting to know and across the board they see themselves as policy makers, communicators and problem solvers first — but they also take pride in being women in high pressure, high demand and high stakes jobs.”