With Wednesday’s news emerging that two key players within the White House will be leaving in the near future, ABC’s Jon Karl pressed W.H. spokesman Josh Earnest Thursday, asking if Obama staffers are “running for the exits” as the 4th quarter of the Obama presidency begins.
The White House announced that senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, one of the Obama 2008 mainstays, and confirmed that communications director Jennifer Palmieri will be leaving in the near future. Pfeiffer will be leaving his post at in March, with Palmieri’s imminent departure unknown as of yet.
Palmieri will be leaving along with White House senior adviser John Podesta to join up with the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign.
“Question on the departures. Obviously, Pfeiffer, Palmieri and Podesta, lot of names beginning with a ‘P’ I guess. But that’s a significant percentage of the president’s senior advisory team here at the White House leaving at roughly the same time,” Karl began. “Is there a sense that people are kind of running for the exits for the rest of this presidency and what’s the president going to do about replacing them?”
Earnest told the ABC News reporter that while the individuals mentioned by Karl have made “substantial contributions,” they expect the team to step up and carry on the administration’s “success” to the outset of the Obama presidency.