As the White House communications director, Kate Bedingfield arguably has the most coveted strategic communications job in the world. She’s been with President Joe Biden for over a decade and has long been a proud admirer and protector of his legacy. Yet, like chief of staff Ron Klain and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, she’s leaving the administration.
Bedingfield says her most notable experience with the president was the night Russia invaded Ukraine. She vividly recalls getting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Biden on the phone and listening to Biden assure his Ukrainian counterpart that he would do whatever it took to provide support amid the Russian attack. Biden made it very clear that the U.S. stood with Ukraine.
She spearheaded communications for Joe Biden as a vice president, as a presidential candidate and now as a president.
Perhaps that is why Bedingfield felt confident in her decision to step down now, after completing one of her final and most important assignments. Bedingfield was one of three people who facilitated the president’s highly secret, surprise visit to Kyiv last week, where he walked alongside Zelenskyy to mark the one-year anniversary of the war and remind the world that American support in the region is unwavering.
I sat down with Bedingfield on the eve of her departure to learn more about those details, as well as her White House highs, lows, regrets and frustrations. She explained how much she loved the way her role at the White House enabled her to call on the foremost experts on every possible subject. And I was curious to hear about her next move. A role like hers is not easily replicated.
But for most of our conversation, she focused on the daily demands of her job. She spearheaded communications for Joe Biden as a vice president, as a presidential candidate and now as a president. But she hasn’t been able to put herself first. As a mother of two children, now 8 and 5, her family has been along for an unconventional and…
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