On Tuesday, Michael LaRosa, press Secretary for Dr. Jill Biden, announced he is leaving the White House according to CNN. LaRosa was Jill’s spokesperson in 2019 during her husband’s presidential campaign and became her press secretary in 2021 after Joe took office.
“For nearly three years, from the campaign to the White House, Michael has brought an encyclopedic knowledge of politics and media to my team as my spokesperson and adviser,” the first lady told CNN. “On a small team, loyalty and friendship are lifelong – we will miss Michael. However, we are excited for him to begin a new chapter in his career.”
His exit comes after Jill Biden was criticized two weeks ago for saying that Latinos are like “Breakfast Tacos.” That had to be fun to cover up for him.
LaRosa was expected to leave the White House for several weeks, according to a source to CNN. He decided to stay to help the First Lady during her recent foreign trips. He will be joining Hamilton Place Strategies as a managing director of the firm. There is no replacement for him announced currently, but the First Lady’s office is looking for a new one.
The news comes as Biden has been continually losing members of the White House team. A report by the Brookings Institute showed that Biden’s “A-Team” as he calls his staff has had a turnover of 29 percent as of July 20, 2022. The study tracking the turnover does not include Cabinet secretaries. There have been 66 people that have left their post so far at the White House and LaRosa is just the most recent one.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ office has had 13 shakeups as staffers such as Chief of Staff Tina Flournoy and Chief spokeswoman Symone Sanders have left in droves.
One of the most notable departures was former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki who left in May and was replaced by Karine Jean-Pierre at the podium. Many reporters have said they are unhappy with her performance and point to her lack of answers to many of their questions.
“She is so focused on not making a mistake that she doesn’t let herself speak freely,” one reporter said about KJP. “A lot of her responses end up becoming … it appears that she’s reading from a page.”
According to Politico, many of her answers have “baffled reporters” and “made some of her White House colleagues wince.”
Recently, Jean-Pierre tried to change the definition of a recession in a recent briefing to try and get ahead of the upcoming report to be released Thursday that will likely show that the US has had negative growth for two quarters in a row.
Trump famously fired a lot of his staff. Many of Biden’s staff have quit and resigned. It’s probably because they don’t want to be tied to a sinking ship. Trying to fix the administration is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic and that can’t be fun. Do you think that people are leaving the administration because Biden is so unpopular? Let us know your thoughts.
