Joining a growing list of former Biden West Wing staffers, Communications Director Kate Bedingfield is reportedly quitting the Biden administration later this month ahead of the November midterms and amid multiple crises that have seen Biden's approval rating sink below Trump levels at the same point.
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
News of the departure came via an exclusive in The Wall Street Journal that described the key role Bedingfield has played in Biden's orbit since he was Vice President in the Obama administration:
Ms. Bedingfield has been one of Mr. Biden’s most loyal confidantes since his time as vice president under former President Barack Obama and has been among a core group of senior strategists who helped steer his winning 2020 presidential bid and guide the first 18 months of his administration.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain said in a statement that without Ms. Bedingfield’s “talent and tenacity, Donald Trump might still be in the White House” and other milestones such as the $1.9 trillion relief package or the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson might not have been fulfilled.
“She 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,” Mr. Klain said.
As a senior aide and trusted confidant to Biden, Bedingfield has had a hand in setting the White House messaging that saw Biden declare Afghanistan's fall to the Taliban was anything but inevitable, blaming "Putin's price hike" for inflation that's hit 40-year highs, and insisting that the U.S.–Mexico border is under control.
During the 2020 campaign, Bedingfield was also a key player in mainstreaming the narrative that coverage of Hunter Biden's laptop from hell was "Russian misinformation."
Bedingfield was preceded in her departure this year alone by press secretary Jen Psaki, rapid response director Mike Gwin, press assistant Michael Kikukawa, assistant press secretary Vedant Patel, director of broadcast media Mariel Saez, and press office chief of staff Amanda Finney. In Vice President Kamala Harris' office, the turnover has been even more drastic, with a majority of her communications team quitting less than halfway through her and President Biden's first term.
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