White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield is leaving the White House later this month.
(For fans of West Wing, Bedingfield was President Joe Biden's Toby Ziegler).
The reason the Administration gave for her departure was that she wanted to spend more time with her husband and children after three years in the challenging post and even more in previous roles.
Bedingfield was also communications director for then Vice President Joe Biden and subsequently deputy campaign manager and communications director for his 2020 presidential run.
The White House gave her credit for her role in prepping the candidate for debates and interviews, helping Biden become the first nominee to defeat an incumbent president -- Donald Trump -- in almost 30 years. Bill Clinton beat incumbent George Bush in 1992.
Also: Biden Names Communications Director
“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,” said White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain in a statement.
He also suggested Bedingfield was still going to be a player. "She will continue to remain a critical player in moving the Biden agenda forward from the outside," Klain said.
Bedingfield was tapped to be then-Vice President Joe Biden’s communications director in August 2015, coming to that post after several years as VP of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), where she was chief spokesperson for the then-MPA chairman and former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, who himself had a campaign role helping Biden.
After Biden left office and decided against a 2016 run for president, Bedingfield moved to Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the media company of former AOL executive Ted Leonsis, as vice president of communications. ▪️
