After weeks of rumors that he might leave his role as press secretary, White House mouthpiece Robert Gibbs said today that he’s officially going to step down.
He’ll continue to work as a political adviser to the president and his reelection campaign. “We’ve been on this ride together since I won my Senate primary in 2004,” Obama told the Times. “He’s had a six-year stretch now where basically he’s been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay. I think it’s natural for someone like Robert to want to step back for a second to reflect, retool and that, as a consequence, brings about both challenges and opportunities for the White House.” Candidates to replace Gibbs include Joe Biden’s spokesman, Jay Carney (a former Washington bureau chief for Time), and Gibbs’s deputies Bill Burton and Josh Earnest.
Gibbs to Leave as White House Press Secretary [Caucus/NYT]
