White House communications director Kate Bedingfield will step down from her role in the coming weeks.
Bedingfield is expected to depart the White House in late July to spend more time with her husband and children, the White House announced. She served as President Joe Biden’s communication’s director for three years and previously as Deputy Campaign Manager during his 2020 presidential campaign.
As deputy campaign manager, Bedingfield was tasked with “advising him on messaging, building his communications and press operations, preparing him for debates and interviews, and devising and executing on strategy” as he secured the Democratic presidential nomination, the press release said.
She served a similar role for Biden while he served as vice president under former President Barack Obama’s administration.
NEWS: White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, a trusted Biden aide since his time as Obama's vice president, will be departing the White House later this month, per WH officials.
— Ken Thomas (@KThomasDC) July 6, 2022
She often filled in for former White House press secretary Jen Psaki when she was absent from the White House briefings. She has made several media appearances on behalf of the president discussing issues pertaining to baby formula, inflation, and Afghanistan. (RELATED: White House Comms Director Spends Morning Getting Spanked By Liberal News Anchors)
“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,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said in a statement. “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,” he concluded.
White House senior adviser Anita Dunn said Bedingfield is a “fierce defender” of Biden whose leadership helped with essential messaging inside the White House.
“From long before we launched the campaign, Kate Bedingfield was a fierce defender of the President and ensured that our message in 2020 and in the White House was consistent with his voice and principles,” White House Senior Adviser Anita Dunn said, according to the press release. “Her leadership helped us tell the story about the fight Joe Biden is making for the working families of America.”
“She’ll always be a core member of this family, even as she takes a little time to put her own family first,” Dunn continued. “We will miss her intelligence, her talent, her sense of humor, and her commitment to the values President Biden fought for as a candidate and fights for every day as president.”