Jen Psaki: How will Joe Biden’s new press secretary differ from her White House predecessors?

Joe Biden’s arrival in the White House means he is being joined by a new press secretary tasked with answering to the American people on behalf of his administration and its policies from behind the famous lectern in the James S Brady Briefing Room. “Kayleigh, isn't it hypocritical for you to accuse others of disinformation when you spread it every day?” she was asked by CNN’s Jim Acosta on 15 December as she left a briefing, not answering the question from a respected reporter who was once famously and falsely accused by the Trump White House of shoving a West Wing aide as a pretext to revoke his press pass. Mr Acosta’s dismissal followed the administration barring the likes of the BBC, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Politico and BuzzFeed from attending White House briefings in the first months of Mr Trump’s term as the president grew increasingly frustrated with a “mainstream media” that dared to question his narratives and refused to ignore the issue of his campaign’s possible ties to Russian operatives, even as the matter was under investigation by the FBI. Mr Trump’s White House would soon abandon daily briefings altogether, allowing the lectern to quite literally gather dust because the 45th president preferred to communicate beneath the whirring helicopter blades of Marine One on his way out of town or via Twitter, through which he disseminated untruths and insults, announced policy and even fired cabinet members without warning or mediation until the social network finally suspended his account two weeks ago for inciting an attempted insurrection at the US Capitol. Recommended Smooth Psaki shows new tone in first Biden press briefing Aside from Mr Biden setting a more responsible example online and in person, one of the key reasons Ms Psaki is already looking more comfortable in the post than her frazzled predecessors is that she’s done it before.