Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby will be stepping down from the podium, he announced Tuesday.
Kirby said that new Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is considering other options for spokesman, including having a civilian instead of a member of the military at the podium.
Kirby, who has been spokesman since December 2013, has been widely liked by the Pentagon press corps for his deep military knowledge and accessibility. Reporters asked Tuesday whether the sometimes-political nature of the questions had led Carter to think it would be more appropriate to have a civilian face in the spokesman role.
The podium has typically been manned by civilian spokespeople in the past, including Victoria Clarke and Geoff Morrell under both the Bush and Obama administrations.
Carter “comes to the job sort of wanting to revisit the role of spokesman here,” Kirby said. “One of the questions … he wants to consider is whether it’s appropriate or not to have a uniform up here. Those are fair questions for him to ask as he comes into the job.”
Kirby said that Carter has not made any decisions on who he wants in the job. For him personally, Kirby said while there have been rounds with reporters that “tried to veer me in a political discussion,” it has largely not been an issue.
