In one year, Jen Psaki held no less than 170 press conferences. Almost every day, Joe Biden’s spokesperson engages in a high-flying exercise for more than an hour, during which this 42-year-old redhead answers dozens of questions on all current topics. and thwarts the traps of Washington’s most seasoned journalists. On August 27, for example, it is cooked at the same time on the fiasco of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the future of diplomatic relations with the Taliban, aid to the victims of a hurricane, the options considered on the Iranian nuclear , the booster doses of the vaccine against Covid-19, the return of the evictions of tenants and – subject of national interest if there is one – the number of individuals bitten by Major, the presidential dog.
“Never easy but never boring either”
And no messing around. The spokesperson for the White House embodies Joe Biden’s policy on a daily basis, for Americans but also for the rest of the world. “It’s the most difficult job in Washington, just behind that of president, believes Olivier Pedro-Jose, former head of communications for the French Ministry of Justice and connoisseur of the Oval Office. In France, the role of door- The government’s word is held by a minister. His counterpart in the United States is not a politician but a close adviser to the president, responsible for liaising with the media. He is therefore particularly exposed.”
It is better to have a beautiful shell and a foolproof zen. In addition to the perilous exercise of the briefing, the spokesperson is constantly in the hot seat, ready to intervene in the event of a crisis. After September 11, it is up to Ari Fleischer to reassure the nation live. In 1955, James Hagerty had to deal with President Eisenhower’s heart attack. Aware of public concern, he organized a press conference with the presidential cardiologist, who stunned the public with technical details and went so far as to specify that Eisenhower had “regular bowel movements”… “The job is never easy but never boring either,” said Dee Dee Myers, spokesperson for Bill Clinton’s first two years in office.
The function was created in 1933 by Franklin Roosevelt and often occupied by former journalists. Jen Psaki, she was director of communications for the White House, then spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Barack Obama. This “mom of two humans under the age of 5”, as her Twitter bio indicates, is, in the opinion of reporters, a “pro” who knows her files like the back of her hand, never lets herself be taken down, keep a courteous tone in all circumstances… Even if she too is dying to call the nasty Fox News correspondent a “bastard”, as Joe Bien did in front of the cameras at the end of January.
One thing is certain, Jen Psaki, always dressed in very colorful outfits, hardly resembles the spokespersons of the previous administration, who all left an imperishable memory… Sean Spicer, from his first briefing in January 2017, attacked the media, with unprecedented rage, for spreading “deliberately false information” by minimizing the size of the crowd attending the inauguration of Donald Trump. He then, during his six months in office, was regularly ridiculed and humiliated, including by the president himself, who reproached him for his suits being cut too large.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who succeeded him on the podium, encouraged Americans to watch a far-right propaganda video, “whether it’s true or not”, and piled on the false stories. Trump’s third voice, Stephanie Grisham, hasn’t held a single press briefing in nine months! Then the last, Kayleigh McEnany, had first assured journalists “I will never lie to you”, before spending her time spreading lies and harsh criticism to journalists. His Jan. 3, 2021, statement went down in history: “President Trump is going to work from early morning until late tonight. He’ll be making a lot of calls and having a lot of meetings.” First-hand information.
After this festival, Jen Psaki certainly seems a little dull. But Joe Biden urgently wanted to restore more functional relations with the American media. The function of the spokesperson remains to present the news in its best light for the president, the famous spin in English. A cartoon representing Jen Psaki sums up her mission well: “Apart from the crisis on the Mexican border, the meager employment figures, inflation, the increase in gasoline prices, the intensification of tensions in the Middle East, everything is fine…”
The task often turns out to be acrobatic. The spokesperson “serves two masters at the same time, the press and the president”, and the latter is “priority”, underlines Tony Snow, a former member of George W. Bush’s team. The border between the spin and outright lying can be tenuous. Ari Fleischer has hammered home for months that weapons of mass destruction were in Iraq. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, his successor Scott McClellan showered journalists with statistics and meeting lists to cover up the disastrous relief failure.
Gorbachev will try to punch him in the face
According to Woody Klein, author of a book on the subject, the degree of success – and credibility – of a spokesperson depends on “the total confidence placed in him or not by the president and on the access to the secrets of the administration and its strategy”. Stephen Early, in the White House from 1949 to 1950, was a close friend of Franklin Roosevelt, and therefore particularly well informed. Pierre Salinger, earthy character, son of a French mother, whispered in the ear of John Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. Virtuoso pianist, lover of good wines, cigars and women (he had four!), he even goes alone to Moscow, where he is invited to stay with Khrushchev in his dacha. He will spend a lot of time hiding JFK’s sexual escapades and multiple illnesses, but no one warns him of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Furious, he then threatens to resign.
Sometimes, however, spokespersons prefer to know as little as possible. Those of Bill Clinton refused to be briefed on the Monica Lewinsky affair to avoid having to testify before Congress. The most improbable holder of the post will undoubtedly remain Ron Ziegler: Richard Nixon, who hated the press, confided nothing to him. Thanks to his ignorance, the spokesman thus escaped prison after the Watergate affair, which he has continued to play down in good faith.
A lesser evil, when you know how risky this work could have been. In March 1981, James Brady was shot and wounded during an attempted attack on Ronald Reagan. Marlin Fitzwater, another spokesperson for the 40th President of the United States, nearly got beaten up by Mikhail Gorbachev himself. A few days before the visit of the Soviet leader to the White House in 1987, the spokesman declared in a press point, without thinking, that it was not a question of a summit “among old friends”, but “between old enemies”. Furious, Gorbachev will try to punch him in the face when he arrives.
Less dangerous, the job has become more complex since the live broadcast of the briefing on television, from 1995. “It is no longer just an information channel, but a channel for persuading public opinion”, observes political scientist Martha Kumar, White House communications specialist. In recent years, the proliferation of media and social networks has further complicated the task of spokespersons, and few have remained in office for more than two years.
In her office, Jen Psaki posted a reproduction of a humorous article from 1897 titled Santa Claus exists. Just to convince yourself that, even at the White House, fairy tales can take place.