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The White House spokeswoman leaves her post and signs for the MSNBC network

2022-04-01T17:43:00.582Z


Jen Psaki, on sick leave after testing positive for coronavirus, will step down as Joe Biden's press secretary in May


Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the White House, on March 18. Chris Kleponis / POOL (EFE)

The spokeswoman for the White House, Jen Psaki, will leave her position in the Joe Biden Administration this coming May, according to what the Axios portal reported exclusively this Friday.

The head of communications for the Democratic president has been out of her job for a whole week as a result of having tested positive for covid in a test carried out a day before the president and his team traveled to Europe to attend several summits that they had as background of Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

While Psaki, 43, was undergoing the coronavirus quarantine that kept her away from the news spotlight, rumors about her future fate only grew and there was speculation about her landing on CNN or MSNBC.

According to Axios, the spokeswoman will join the MSNBC team, but her final destination is yet to be determined.

Psaki has not yet signed any contract, since the Administration's ethics committee stipulates so: no public official can seek work in the private sector while she is in the Administration, always according to Axios.

The public face of the Democratic government was questioned last month during a press conference about whether he was looking for a new job, something he denied.

"I'm busy enough to think about that," Psaki said when asked by Fox reporter Peter Doocy.

"You are not going to get rid of me, at least for the moment, I'm sorry Peter," the spokeswoman concluded.

Psaki is not the first official to leave the White House to join MSNBC.

Symone Sanders, former spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris, was hired last January by that chain to present a program over the weekend.

Political spokespersons are highly desired by cable television companies, since their audiences are made up of segments of the population that demand a high content of this type of information.

Donald Trump's former press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, joined FOX as a commentator in March.

Since the Democrat Biden arrived at the White House in January 2021, the spokeswoman has set out to restore respect and normality to a press room that during the Donald Trump Administration was the scene of tensions and even insults towards reporters by the former Republican president.

Psaki was White House communications director for the last two years of Barack Obama's term, and in November 2020 she was appointed by Biden as his press secretary.

Following the announcement of her appointment, Psaki said via Twitter that she was "honored to work for Biden again."

Psaki has never shied away from any subject, no matter how thorny.

For the files there is already the sharp response that she gave to a journalist who questioned President Biden's position on abortion, in the midst of the controversy over restrictive legislation on this matter in Texas.

The reporter for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a network of Catholic cable channels, asked in September 2021 during the daily press conference why the president supported the voluntary termination of pregnancy if he was Catholic.

"She thinks it's a woman's right, it's a woman's body and it's her choice," Psaki replied.

"Who then believes that he should watch over the unborn child?" The journalist insisted.

The spokeswoman assured that Biden believes that it is up to the woman and her doctor to make that decision.

“I know that you have never faced that choice and have never been pregnant, but for the women out there facing that choice it is an incredibly difficult thing and the president believes that their rights must be respected,” the spokeswoman settled.

After winning the 2020 presidential elections, Biden announced the composition of his communication and press team, which for the first time in the country's history was made up entirely of women.

The veteran former senator then decided that the communication policy and relations with the press would fall to seven "diverse and experienced" women, who would transfer to the Administration the reflection of the country's diversity.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-04-01

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