One day after Joe Biden kicked off his campaign by attending a fundraiser hosted by a senior Comcast Corp. executive, the NBC News communications director joined his campaign as national press secretary.
Following the release of his official campaign launch video, the former vice president traveled to the home of Comcast Corp. senior executive Vice President David Cohen for a glitzy donor event where guests gave up to $2,800 each for the privilege of hearing Biden speak.
Other prominent Democratic bundlers such as Independence Blue Cross CEO Daniel J. Hilferty and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell were in attendance.
“You’re the folks who brought me to the dance,” Biden said to the group of roughly 150 people. “You’ve been with me and made it possible for me to be able to run. Incredible thing about all of you is, you never ask. I really mean it.”
The next day, Biden’s campaign announced it would be hiring TJ Ducklo for its chief communications role. Ducklo previously worked as senior communications director for NBC News and as the communications director for Bloomberg Politics beforehand.
Comcast has been the current owner of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News since 2011.
The hiring of Ducklo comes after Biden’s campaign that it brought on former CNN analyst Symone Sanders, who also served as Sen. Bernie Sanders’ press secretary during his 2016 run.
