“Jane decided to stand up and question my qualifications and services to this country. Once she did, the gloves came off,” Mr. Spicer said. (In 2017, when Mr. Spicer was criticized for referring to Nazi death camps as “Holocaust centers”, Ms. Psaki was more liberal. “It’s really hard work, everyone gets screwed,” he said on CNN at the time.)
Mr Biden has urged Ms Psaki to avoid jargon and other government jargon, penalizing her for using the corporate term “R&D” – research and development – in an outright response. Unlike Mr Trump, Mr Biden does not usually watch the briefings in real time, but he has been known to catch snippets on cable news during the day when there are gaps in his schedule.
She has also admitted some missteps, such as the early outings in which she seemed to make fun of the space force, the new military branch created by President Trump. She now holds a Space Force pin on her desk to remind her of the impact of his words. (The traditional flak jacket absent from his office is cheeky among White House press secretaries; it apparently disappeared in January.)
No one has any idea about Mr Biden being a careful public speaker. (As Mr. Axelrod once said, “he is not an accurate instrument.”) Ms. Saki’s primary function is to annotate her observations for the record and in some cases to clean up, a responsibility that has increased in recent weeks. Has been. It has also become difficult.
Rahm Emanuel, who worked with Ms Psaki on Democratic campaigns and recommended her to the Obama team, said the day her appointment was announced she had written to Biden’s chief of staff Ronald Klein. “I said you are going to count your blessings in the days to come, that you have taken this decision,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about what’s going on in that room.”
Mr. Emanuel said he also played a role in Ms. Saki’s personal life. She likes to take credit for asking her future husband, Gregory Mecher, another Democratic aide, to get on the campaign trail. (He later referred to himself as Mr. Mecher’s “Wing Man”.) The couple was married in 2010 Under the Mulberry Tree at Maryland Estate; Guests included Mr Gibbs and correspondent Jake Tapper.