Top White House Communications Official Stepping Down, Third to Do so in 2023

White House Director of Communications Kate Bedingfield speaks during a briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, on March 30, 2022. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

The Biden administration on Friday confirmed White House communications director Kate Bedingfield will step down soon, coming months after the move was announced.

“Since my time as Vice President, Kate has been a loyal and trusted adviser, through thick and thin,” President Joe Biden said in a statement that confirmed her departure. “She was a critical strategic voice from the very first day of my presidential campaign in 2019 and has been a key part of advancing my agenda in the White House. The country is better off as a result of her hard work and I’m so grateful to her—and to her husband and two young children—for giving so much. Ben has big shoes to fill.”

Ben LaBolt, a top Democratic communications official who worked in the Obama administration, will replace Bedingfield as White House communications director, said the administration. The White House indicated that LaBolt previously worked for the White House while it attempted to secure the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson last year.

Before she worked as communications director, Bedingfield previously served under the Obama administration in similar roles. Outside of the federal government, Bedingfield worked for the Motion Picture Association of America, according to the White House statement.

Last year, the White House confirmed that she would be leaving at an undisclosed date.

“Her strategic acumen, intense devotion to the President’s agenda, and fierce work on his behalf are unmatched,” said former White House chief of staff Ron Klain at the time. “She will continue to remain a critical player in the Biden agenda forward from the outside.”

At the time, the White House statement said that Bedingfield is leaving to “spend more time with her husband and young children” and did not provide other reasons. According to recent White House disclosures, she earned $180,000 in 2022, considered one of the highest-paid administration officials.

Around the same time last year, the White House confirmed Jen Psaki, Biden’s first press secretary, would be leaving the administration before she joined MSNBC as a political analyst. She was replaced by current press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Bedingfield will be leaving the White House at the end of February.

Other Departures

With Bedingfield’s departure, she’s now the third Biden administration official to leave in 2023.

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain testifies before the Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery Subcommittee hearing on "Community Perspectives on Coronavirus Preparedness and Response" on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 10, 2020. (Nicholas KammI/AFP via Getty Images)

On Feb. 2, Biden confirmed that National Economic Council Director Brian Deese would be departing the White House.

“When I took office, we faced high unemployment, an economy in crisis, and main streets shuttered across the country. I knew we needed to not just get families back to work and businesses re-opened, we needed to rebuild our economy so no one was left behind,” Biden said as he confirmed Deese would be leaving.

Praising Deese’s work, Biden further wrote that he “has a unique ability to translate complex policy challenges into concrete actions that improve the lives of American people. He has helped steer my economic vision into reality, and managed the transition of our historic economic recovery to steady and stable growth.”

Days before that, the administration said that Klain, the former White House chief of staff, would be leaving. Klain left this week and was replaced by Jeff Zeints, who has served as Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator.