By Greg Hazley
Jay Carney, the former Time Washington bureau chief who has directed communications for Vice President Joe Biden since 2008, will take over the White House press podium from Robert Gibbs next month.
Gibbs, a close advisor to President Obama since his Senate days and presidential campaign infancy, is stepping down to focus on political and re-election strategy for the president. Carney, in contrast, knows the press room from a reporter’s perspective and hasn’t enjoyed as close a relationship with Obama as his successor.
Carney |
As New York Times White House reporter Michael Shear noted, Gibbs “has been speaking for Mr. Obama since the days when it was just the two of them riding around Iowa, was unusually close to the president for a press secretary and served as one of his closest advisers. … Mr. Carney does not have that kind of relationship with the president and, as a newcomer to the Obama inner circle, perhaps never will.”
Forty-five-year-old Carney was at Time for 20 years serving as Moscow and Miami bureau chief and covering politics for 15 of those years. He moved to D.C. in 1993 to cover the Clinton White House and was on Air Force One with President Bush on Sept. 11, 2001.
Politico’s Josh Gerstein sees Carney’s promotion as a shift in White House communications strategy under new chief of staff Bill Daley. The move shows that Obama and Daley “were intent on signaling a break with campaign-style tactics in favor of a more buttoned-down focus on the business of governing, and possibly a detente with the White House press corps.”
Carney, who’s first name is James is married to ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman. At the White House, he’ll report to communications director Dan Pfeiffer.
His appointment was announced with a bevy of White House slots. Stephanie Cutter, who was spokeswoman for the Obama-Biden transition and chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama during the campaign, was named deputy senior advisor to the president. She was a comms. deputy during the Clinton White House and ran her own PR shop.
Carney is not yet on Twitter, although Twitter newcomer Pfieffer tweeted Thursday that "Gibbs promises to get Jay on twitter ASAP."
|