Bedingfield to Step Down as White House Communications Director

WASHINGTON — Kate Bedingfield, a longtime aide to President Biden who most recently served as White House communications director, will be leaving that position in late July.

According to the White House, Bedingfield, who has worked for Biden in some capacity since his time as vice president, is leaving to spend more time with her husband and young children after more than three straight years of leading his communications team.

“Without Kate Bedingfield’s talent and tenacity, Donald Trump might still be in the White House, the [American] Rescue Plan and the infrastructure law might still be unrealized goals, and Ketanji Brown Jackson might not be sitting on the Supreme Court,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said in a statement. 

“She has played a huge role in everything the president has achieved — from his second term as vice president, through the campaign, and since coming to the White House. Her strategic acumen, intense devotion to the president’s agenda, and fierce work on his behalf are unmatched. She will continue to remain a critical player in moving the Biden agenda forward from the outside,” Klain  added.

Bedingfield, one of Biden’s most trusted aides, previously served as the deputy campaign manager and communications director on the president’s 2020 presidential campaign.

In that position she played a leading role advising him on messaging, building his communications and press operations, preparing him for debates and interviews, and devising and executing on strategy that helped him secure the Democratic nomination faster than any candidate since 2004.

She also represented the campaign on television at key moments, including before and after debates.

In the White House, Bedingfield continued as the president’s top communications aide and was similarly integral to every major public relations effort while leading the White House Communications Department, ensuring that each part of the team was working to deliver the president’s message and advocate for his agenda.

“From long before we launched the campaign, Kate Bedingfield was a fierce defender of the president and ensured that our message in 2020 and in the White House was consistent with his voice and principles,” said White House Senior Adviser Anita Dunn.

“Her leadership helped us tell the story about the fight Joe Biden is making for the working families of America. She’ll always be a core member of this family, even as she takes a little time to put her own family first. We will miss her intelligence, her talent, her sense of humor, and her commitment to the values President Biden fought for as a candidate and fights for every day as president,” Dunn said.

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