National Security Council spokesman John Kirby is taking on an expanded role as President Joe Biden barrels toward a 2024 election rematch with former President Donald Trump.
Kirby, who before joining the Biden White House proper served as the Pentagon press secretary, will be promoted from deputy assistant to the president to assistant to the president and White House national security communications adviser, according to a senior White House official.
Reuters reported Kirby’s expanded role on Sunday, and the White House confirmed that his new job will now include coordinating national security communications across all federal agencies.
Furthermore, Kirby will stand up a small staff separate from the National Security Council press team to help him in synchronizing the administration’s messaging. Kirby also plans to continue regularly fielding national security-focused questions from reporters in the White House’s James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.
“President Biden is proud to have John leading national security message coordination across the administration as we continue to make a forceful case for our national security interests at home and in the world,” top Biden adviser Anita Dunn said of Kirby in a statement to Reuters.
In addition to two tours as Pentagon press secretary, Kirby previously served as the top spokesman for the State Department, the spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and chief spokesman for the U.S. Navy, on top of 30 years of enlisted naval service.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
As the war in Ukraine nears two years and following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, Kirby has become the de facto face of Biden’s briefing room despite White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s near-daily briefings and gaggles with reporters.
Reports from early January indicated Kirby’s presence in the briefing room is heightening tensions with Jean-Pierre’s staff and that Kirby has expressed his desire to be White House press secretary one day.
