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Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, led President Biden’s administration’s first press briefing on Wednesday and vowed to bring “truth and transparency to the briefing room.”
Ms Psaki’s appearance at the White House pulpit just hours after Mr Biden’s inauguration was designed to create a stark contrast to the previous administration, which had engaged in a verbal fight with reporters and had practically given up on briefings.
Unlike Sean Spicer, Mr. Trump’s first press secretary, who slammed the media and lied about the size of Mr. Trump’s inaugural crowd when he first appeared in the briefing room, Ms. Psaki spoke engaged in a largely civilian exchange of information with journalists.
“There will be times when we don’t agree, and there will definitely be days when we don’t agree for long parts of the briefing itself, maybe,” she told a dozen journalists in the room. “But we have a common goal, that of sharing accurate information with the American people.”
Ms Psaki, originally from Connecticut, worked for a veteran of Capitol Hill, John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, and Mr. Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns.
During Mr. Obama’s second term, Ms. Psaki served as the State Department’s chief spokesperson, then was a finalist for the White House press secretary when Jay Carney left the White House and was a finalist for the White House. was succeeded by Josh Earnest in 2014. She was Mr. Obama’s communications director until the end of her tenure.
Ms Psaki, 42, was a surprise choice to become Mr Biden’s main spokesperson; she didn’t work on her campaign, but rather as a CNN commentator and for private PR clients. But Mr. Biden’s familiarity with her during the Obama administration outweighed any benefit to others that helped him win the election.
Ms Psaki began the briefing with an overview of the executive orders Mr Biden signed earlier in the evening. She then responded to a series of questions, including providing information about planned calls between Mr Biden and foreign leaders and answering a question about the government’s response to a recent cyber attack.
Ms Psaki asked Zeke Miller, an Associated Press reporter, to ask the first question. The move was a throwback to a briefing room tradition – allowing the telegraph service to answer the first question – that the Trump administration had abandoned.
For reporters and others familiar with pre-Trump administration briefings, his briefing was extraordinarily normal.
“We reserve the right to respond at any time of our choosing to any cyberattack,” Ms. Psaki said. “But our team is, of course, right in the field today, they’re just getting on their computers. So I don’t have anything for you to read or preview for you at the moment. “
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