Jen Psaki
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2021-01-22 National Economic Council director says “decisive action” necessary to prevent further financial fallout White House press secretary Jen Psaki and National Economic Council director Brian Deese held a press briefing on President Joe Biden’s second full day in office to discuss economic relief plans.
Psaki and Deese discussed the president’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid proposal. The package includes $400 billion for efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 and increase vaccine distribution; over $1 trillion to assist families needing direct financial support; and $440 billion in emergency funds for cash-poor small businesses and communities. The White House’s plan, which Mr. Biden said he plans to send to Congress soon, includes additional $1,400 direct payments to millions of Americans, on top of the $600 payments approved in December under the previous Congress.
Deese said “decisive action” is needed to prevent further financial fallout from the pandemic. “We’re at a precarious moment for the virus and the economy,” he warned. “Without decisive action, we risk falling into a very serious economic hole, even more serious than the crisis we find ourselves in.”
2021-01-20 Who is Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary for Joe Biden? President Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, held the first media briefing of his administration after his inauguration Wednesday evening, vowing to bring “truth and transparency” back to the White House.
Psaki, a veteran of Democratic campaigns and administrations, will be the face of the all-female senior White House communications team as Biden settles into his presidency.
Psaki, who was raised in Connecticut, has worked for Democrats in Washington since at least 2004, when she served in John Kerry’s presidential campaign.
From there, she moved onto both of President Obama’s campaigns and served as the top State Department spokesperson during his second term. By the end of Obama’s time in office, she had graduated to be his communications director starting in 2014.
She did not work for Biden’s 2020 campaign, and instead worked as a CNN political commentator and private public relations adviser, according to the report.
2020-11-30 Inside the unlikely return of Jen Psaki Psaki’s ascension to the top spokesperson’s role — one that she wanted and for which she was twice a runner-up for in the Obama administration — fits with the president-elect’s pattern of turning to experienced Washington operatives to fill the top positions in his administration. And it signals Biden’s intention to run a White House free of the kind of briefing-room drama that defined his predecessor’s tenure, from Sean Spicer’s claims about the size of Trump’s inauguration crowd to Kayleigh McEnany’s misleading statements about the pandemic.
Ultimately, Psaki beat out other top contenders for the role, including Symone Sanders and Karine Jean-Pierre, because of her strong rapport with the former vice president combined with her expertise on economic and foreign policy issues and her experience conducting high-profile press briefings, multiple people familiar with the selection said.
“She is an ideal choice for them for a job that’s really hard to fill,” said Jennifer Palmieri, a former communications director in the Obama White House. “It’s hard to find someone that has credibility, the press likes, will mesh well with the White House staff and can speak about foreign policy and national security issues with a lot of credibility.”
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