White House press secretary, Jay Carney. President Barack Obama
announced Friday that his spokesman is stepping down.
Photo|Courtesy|White House
President Barack Obama announced Friday that his White House press secretary, Jay Carney, is stepping down.
Mr
Carney, 49, is leaving his post as the public face of the
administration after shifting from two decades of reporting to politics
at the highest level of US government.
And fielding
questions from the press moments after Mr Obama left the podium, Mr
Carney said he hadn't made up his mind on his next move.
“I
haven’t made any decisions yet,” he said. I’m excited by some of the
possibilities but it has been an amazing experience working here, just
so fulfilling, Carney added.
Despite coming from the
White House press corps himself, Mr Carney developed a sometimes
contentious relationship with the news media, who at times pressed him
to say more than he was willing to about the president’s policies and
decision-making.
He has been described by some White
House colleagues as one who brought “rare but practical experience” to
the job as a former reporter who once covered the White House for Time
magazine.
He left journalism to become communications
director for Vice President Joe Biden and subsequently moved over to
serve as Obama's press secretary in 2011.
REPORTER'S PERSPECTIVE
President Obama said Friday that Mr Carney was very much at home as the Press Secretary.
"Every
morning, he comes to this place with a reporter's perspective," he
told reporters after interrupting Carney mid-sentence as he responded to
a question on Ukraine in the Brady Press Briefing Room. "That's why,
believe it or not, I think he will miss hanging out with you," Obama
said of Mr Carney.
Mr Carney will be replaced by the
deputy press secretary, Josh Earnest. President Obama called Carney’s
successor a person of “sound judgment and great temperament.”
Earnest has worked for Mr. Obama since the 2008 campaign, standing in for Mr. Carney at times in the briefing room.
Mr
Obama, who said Carney had told him of the decision in April, said he
would miss him dearly. “He is one of my closest friends here in
Washington,” he said adding that Carney’s five and a half years as an
administration spokesman “placed a strain on my wife and two kids.”
Carney was the second person to serve in the position during the Obama presidency, having replaced Robert Gibbs.
No comments :
Post a Comment