Kate Bedingfield: Biden’s communications director is leaving the White House

Bedingfield will end seven-year run with Biden in weeks

White House communications director Kate Bedingfield is departing the White House in the coming weeks, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday, marking an end to a partnership that spanned back to Joe Biden’s time as vice president.

Politico and The Wall Street Journal reported the news first, citing White House officials who said that Ms Bedingfield had begun notifying associates of her impending departure. A White House spokesperson later confirmed the news to The Independent.

“Kate Bedingfield, a longtime trusted aide to President Biden and a senior strategist both in the administration and on his winning campaign, will leave the White House in late July to spend more time with her husband and young children after more than 3 straight years of leading his communications team. She first worked for the President as his communications director during his time as Vice President,” the White House said in a statement.

“Without Kate Bedingfield’s talent and tenacity, Donald Trump might still be in the White House, the Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Law might still be unrealized goals, and Ketanji Brown Jackson might not be sitting on the Supreme Court,” added White House chief of staff Ron Klain. “She has played a huge role in everything the President has achieved – from his second term as Vice President, through the campaign, and since coming to the White House. Her strategic acumen, intense devotion to the President’s agenda, and fierce work on his behalf are unmatched. She will continue to remain a critical player in moving the Biden agenda forward from the outside.”

Ms Bedingfield first joined Mr Biden in 2015, leading his press team when he was in the Obama White House. She worked for him off and on over the years and served as his deputy campaign manager for his successful 2020 presidential run. Her next plans have not been announced; she follows the departure of Jen Psaki, Mr Biden’s first press secretary, who left earlier this year.

The departure of the communications director at a time when the White House has yet to name a replacement deputy press secretary to back up Karine Jean-Pierre, who ascended to the press sec role with Ms Psaki’s departure, could further burden an already-adrift White House press team that has struggled in recent days amid a barrage of serious issues facing both the administration and the country.

The White House has struggled to respond effectively to increasing worries about inflation while being battered simultaneously on the issue of abortion rights, and whether the executive branch will take any tangible action to protect them beyond urging voters to support Democrats in November.

Ms Psaki departed the beleaguered White House for MSNBC and is expected to fill a role in the network’s midterm elections coverage later this year before launching her own program in 2023.

Usually in a behind-the-scenes role, Ms Bedingfield briefly stepped into the limelight to host daily White House press briefings in late March after Ms Psaki and Ms Jean-Pierre were both sidelined by Covid-19.