US President Barack Obama has announced the name of State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki for the post of White House communications director.
Psaki will take up her new roles on April 1. She will succeed Communications Director Jen Palmieri, the White House officials said.
Palmieri is likely to join former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her expected presidential campaign as she has yet not revealed her poll ambitions.
“Jen worked on both my campaigns, she’s served in the White House and she’s traveled the world as an advisor to Secretary John Kerry. I fully trust Jen – and I am thrilled she’s agreed to come back to the White House,” the President said in a statement.
For the post of Communications Director, the political analysts said that the President has picked someone with whom he shared a long history into his inner circle as his other long-time loyals and aides have departed.
Psaki had been considered two times for the press secretary job at the White House, but lost the opportunities to Jay Carney and Josh Earnest.
Insiders say Psaki shares a good rapport with both president and the press.
The political analysts say Psaki’s campaign roots can bring a major jolt of Chicago history to the White House, mainly after one of the last members of the original campaign team of Obama, senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, left the White House.
David Plouffe, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs are among the other members of the original inner circle who have left the White House in the recent pasts for the private sector.
“Given Psaki’s long history with the president dating back to 2007, she was the obvious and first choice for this role. She has a deep understanding of the president’s record, his story and the reasons he ran for the presidency in the first place,” according to a White House official.
The major challenge before Psaki will be to keep the White House matters relevant in the context of national political conversation as the campaigning for the 2016 presidential election is heating up and dominating the US news.
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