A top adviser to the core group of senior officials at the center of President Joe Biden’s White House is set to depart the West Wing in the coming days.
Remi Yamamoto, senior adviser for the office of the chief of staff, will become the latest senior official to leave the West Wing in a period of transition for an administration in its third year.
The period tracks closely with the turnover timeline of previous administrations, as top aides who played central roles in the presidential campaign or transition and first two years of a White House make way for a new team set to navigate the dynamics of divided government and a likely reelection effort.
“From the very start of the campaign, Remi has been unflinchingly loyal and extraordinarily capable,” Biden said in a statement to CNN. “Her insights, good humor, and work ethic have been an incredible asset to all of us, and I am grateful for her service and friendship.”
For Yamamoto, who was a “day one” member of Biden’s 2020 campaign, a limited public profile belied an integral role in advising, deploying, and defending the tight-knit group of long-time Biden advisers that serve as the central power center of the current White House.
Yamamoto served in communications roles in several Democratic political campaigns before joining Biden’s team in April 2019, bringing some rare external views into a Biden operation defined by advisers that had been with the former vice president for years and, in some cases, decades.
A role as Biden’s traveling campaign press secretary put her by his side throughout the campaign prior to pandemic shutdowns – and inside the small orbit of powerful aides that included future senior White House advisers Bruce Reed and Mike Donilon.
“She really internalized who President Biden is and what the campaign was about,” Donilon said in…
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