(Washington) Embodied promises of appeasement and then disappointment with Joe Biden without a false note, but without succeeding in regaining the US president’s popularity: Jen Psaki relinquished her position as her spokesperson on Friday.
Posted at 11:25 a.m.
At the age of forty-three, she will come for the last time into the office of the famous press room of the White House, adjusting to the formidable training of the daily press conference.
Jen Psaki has long said she’s leaving after a little more than a year as a spokeswoman for the US CEO, saying she wants to spend more time with her two young children.
From Monday, his assistant Karen-Jean-Pierre will face journalists’ raised hands. The first openly black and lesbian woman to be awarded the title of “Secretary of the Press,” she will have to defend the unpopular Joe Biden, who had to bury his great hopes for reform and political reconciliation.
Jin Psaki emphasized that they share the same ambition: “to create a drama-free work environment.”
Calm after scandals
Indeed, it has restored calm after the scandals of Donald Trump’s tenure.
This well-rounded former swimmer avoided the pitfalls, smoothly revealed elements of language on all kinds of topics, and kicked with a smile on sensitive topics.
Where Donald Trump’s spokesmen insulted journalists, even deserting the press room, Jin Psaki congratulated reporters on a birthday, wedding, promotion.
It’s all under the watchful eye of a ruthless audience: In an interview, the outgoing spokeswoman said she received rods sent in by viewers who were upset to see her bring back her red hair on a regular basis.
Graduated in Sociology and English, she entered politics with the Democratic Party after her studies and worked in communications positions during the Obama administration.
She was a foreign ministry spokeswoman for two years, which led to her being targeted by the Russian press close to the Kremlin.
Perhaps Jeanne Psaki, whose inflammatory statements against Vladimir Putin have multiplied, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, have not forgotten that the Russian president called her in these sexual terms in June 2021: a “beautiful cultured young woman” “always mixes” everything.
At the White House, her hottest interview pitted her against Fox News reporter Peter Dossey.
It has even become a kind of routine, delighting two camps on social networks: one applauds “Psakibombs”, the arrows fired by the speaker; The other enjoys the journalist’s attacks from the conservative channel.
He assured that he would regret the departure of Jin Psaki, welcoming the always “legal” interviewer.
America divided
But behind these almost unanimous praise penetrates a certain boredom of journalists who faced completely closed communications in the White House.
In a recent article on Politico, a reporter who requested anonymity summed it up: “Jane is very good at her job, unfortunately. […] So the job is less rewarding, because you’re no longer saving democracy against Sean Spicer, Donald Trump’s former spokesman. “When you go after Jane, you just look like a damned one.”
The calm atmosphere often appears once again in the “James Brady Press Briefing Room” a thousand miles away from an unrelenting American political scientist by any means.
Hence the sometimes striking contrast between the optimistic message of Jin Psaki in Washington, and the insults leveled by Donald Trump supporters as Joe Biden’s motorcade passed along the roads of rural or working-class America.
The change of speaker also coincides with a new tone from the White House, which is now squarely attacking Republicans who obsessed over the former president’s ideas, having long advocated cooperation that transcends party affiliations.
Jen Psaki has left the mystery hanging over her future so far, but according to the press, she will be joining the progressively oriented MSNBC.
