With a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign on the horizon, John Podesta might not be long for the White House.
As White House aide Marlon Marshall stepped down from his post Friday, the move sparked widespread speculation of a link to a forthcoming presidential campaign by Hillary Clinton.
Marshall, who has served as deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and counts as a mentor Robby Mook, a top candidate for the campaign-manager slot on Clinton’s team. Now, Marshall will move back to his consulting firm, 270 Strategies, a perch from which he could easily transition to a presidential campaign.
But there is a greater Clinton-inspired exodus still to come.
The man to watch now will be Podesta, a longtime Clinton ally who is seen as her likely campaign chairman and who serves in the White House as counselor to President Obama. The question is, for how long?
In a November interview, Podesta was candid about his intent to aid Clinton’s presidential campaign, should she launch one, and hinted at his timeline to depart the White House.
“If she runs, which I hope she will, I’ll do whatever she asks me to do,” Podesta said on “Charlie Rose.” “But right now she hasn’t made a decision to run and so I’m expecting to return to what I was doing before.
“I might stay a little longer through the State of the Union,” Podesta added, “but then I’m going to return to my prior life.”
With less than three weeks until the president’s State of the Union on Jan. 20, that timeline remains likely, Democratic sources say.
“It’s a good ending point for somebody with that kind of position,” said one Democratic strategist with ties to Clinton.
Podesta, who founded the liberal Center for American Progress, joined the Obama administration in January 2014, tapped as an ideas man to help steer the president’s “year of action,” in particular on climate change and environmental issues.
But that job has not precluded some extracurricular activities. On July 28, Politico reported, Podesta met in Washington to talk campaign strategy with a group of Clinton allies including Jim Messina, the former Obama campaign manager who will head the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA.
In September, Podesta and Clinton even shared a stage, when he interviewed her for an audience at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.
They soon might be sharing a much bigger stage. Although Clinton is not expected to announce a campaign until later in the spring, confidantes report that her mind is made up — meaning Podesta’s political talents will likely be needed sooner, rather than later.
“I think she has made a decision now,” said the Democratic strategist. What’s left, then, is deciding “when the announcing time is, and putting things together.”
