Vice President Kamala Harris has lost another top spokesperson as part of a broader White House communications shop reshuffle after the departure of former press secretary Jen Psaki.
Herbie Ziskend, a senior communications adviser to Harris, is leaving the vice president’s office for the West Wing, where he will be the new White House deputy communications director.
Kate Berner, who is currently in the role, will be promoted to principal deputy communications director. Ziskend is among the few remaining Harris communications staffers who joined her team at the start of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Ziskend’s appointment coincides with the tapping of Olivia Dalton, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations’s former communications director, as principal White House deputy press secretary. The post, once held by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, has been vacant since Jean-Pierre replaced Psaki behind the podium.
Dalton, whose relationship with Biden dates back to when he was one of Delaware’s senators, will occasionally be called on to brief the press in her new, more public-facing position.
[source: The Washington Examiner]
“Kate and Herbie are longtime pillars of the Biden-Harris communications operation through the campaign, the convention, the transition, and now the administration,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield added. “They bring insight, passion, and great judgment to their work, and we are excited that they will continue to be critical leaders on this team as we continue to make progress for the American people.”
The shake-up in both Biden and Kamala’s respective comms teams could not be solely based on Jen Psaki’s departure. Something more insidious is happening — or working in the Biden-Harris administration is really just that bad.
Serious questions have been raised as a result of the mass exodus of White House staffers.
Could this be the logical conclusion to hiring staffers based on race, gender, and sexual orientation instead of actual merit?
Why won’t liberal media outlets report on the growing personnel issues fomenting inside the White House today?
Americans will undoubtedly be left in the dark as to what’s really going on behind the scenes in Biden’s tumultuous White House.
Author: Elizabeth Tierney