Jen Psaki served as White House Press Secretary under President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2022, becoming one of the most recognizable voices of the administration and a member of the first all-female senior communications team. A veteran of both the Obama and Biden administrations, she has also served as White House Communications Director, Deputy Press Secretary, and State Department Spokesperson. Before returning to public service in the Biden administration, Psaki was a political commentator for CNN, and she now hosts “The Briefing with Jen Psaki” on MSNBC. The Harvard Political Review sat down with Psaki to discuss the evolution of political communication across the Obama and Biden eras, the challenges of rebuilding trust in the press, and the future of women in political leadership.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Harvard Political Review: You’ve served in both the Obama and Biden administrations as a senior communications official, including White House Press Secretary. How would you compare the communications challenges between the two administrations?
Jen Psaki: A major challenge is that the way people consume information massively changed, even over the course of time from when Barack Obama was president to when Joe Biden was president. When Barack Obama was president, we were the first White House to have what we called a “new media department,” which kind of tells you everything you need to know. We were still understanding how to wrangle social media. By the time Joe Biden became president, things had changed even more significantly. A challenge was figuring out how to reach people outside of the traditional forms of communication.
President Obama had a unique challenge in that he was the first African American to be the President of the United States. Of course, it is a great honor; I’m honored to have worked for him and loved my job. It also meant that the hopes and dreams of a whole community of people were on his shoulders. I think that was an additional challenge as opposed to if he were a White man, as the rest of our presidents are and have been.
HPR: In an era of increasing polarization and social media as an added echo chamber, how did you, as White House Press Secretary, maintain an air of professionalism and ensure you were putting out the right messages?
JP: Let’s think about the moment we were living in. Following the first Trump administration meant that my job was not just about answering the questions accurately to the best of my ability. I tried hard to do that, but it was also about lowering the temperature. That was something Joe Biden really wanted me to do — to ensure that the room was not a place for propaganda. Those were my objectives: speaking on what President Biden believed, trying to put information out to the public about COVID and other issues that would be useful to them, and trying to make the briefing room a forum where people could actually ask real questions and receive real answers.
HPR: In your new role as a host and political analyst on MSNBC, how has your experience in government shaped your approach to the news?
JP: It took me a while to realize this, even though it sounds obvious, but it turns out that having a deep knowledge of how the government functions, and knowing when it’s not working, is invaluable to the moment that we’re living in. At MSNBC, I try not to shy away from being a nerd. I end up nerding out about everything from government shutdowns to campaigns and how they’re working, and I try to lean a lot into my experience to be a value-add to the audience.
HPR: What do you think is the future of government-press relations, when it comes to the White House or the State Department interfacing with the public?
JP: I think that future presidents and secretaries of state are going to have to think about how they engage with the press corps that follows and covers them. And they’ll have to consider how best to communicate with outlets and through forums and formats that reach a broader swath of the public. That’s going to require more time, more creativity, but that’s a challenge and maybe an opportunity.
HPR: You were also part of the first all-female senior White House communications team, and now, we’re seeing Karoline Leavitt as Press Secretary under President Trump. How do you assess the evolving role of women in political communications?
JP: It’s an incredibly powerful moment, but it’s important to zoom out and know that this is a trend that’s been on the rise for decades. Dee Dee Myers was incredible as the first woman and, at the time, the second-youngest person to hold the position of press secretary under President Clinton. C.J. Cregg, the character from “The West Wing,” is based on her, reportedly. She’s a brilliant strategist and policy expert. You see more and more women entering the political communications space. I hope this allows for future women to enter more of these roles and to get the respect and recognition that they deserve.
