Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us now Jared helping our Fox correspondent in DC
and the latest time what's happening with staff members at
the White House. Is this to be giving you the
great departures?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This just one, well right now, it's one, But I
think it could signal perhaps a little bit of a
larger exodus. And you would expect that right once President
Biden announced that he was not running for reelection, You're
going to see, especially some of the strategy folks start
to step away. That's what we've seen here with the
departure of Anita Done. She has been a longtime member
(00:30):
of kind of what you would consider the inner circle
for President Biden, the chief architect of the twenty twenty
campaign at the White House. She had been in charge
of a lot of the communications, the messaging for things
like the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure, Build chips and sciences.
She was expected to play a pretty senior role in
(00:54):
the re election bit as well. She instead will now
be a senior advisor head up what is called Future
Forward at super pac committed to raise about three hundred
million dollars for Vice President Kamala Harris. So again, I
think it's sort of signals that especially the strategy folks
you know, are probably going to start figuring out how
(01:15):
do they best conserve the party. The Vice President, Anita
Dunn had kind of been signaled as the fall guy,
if you will, for the debate, and so not entirely
surprising that she is moving forward, But listen, she is
probably still somebody who is going to have a senior
(01:39):
position here for Democrats moving forward. She, like I said,
has been a long time player in democratic politics, going
back to the Carter White House. She was a senior
advisor to Barack Obama and his campaigns in eight In
twenty twelve, she's a House communications director. She's married to
Bob Bauer, who is a former White House counsel. President
(02:00):
Biden's now personal attorney.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
All right, let's talk about these people. They're not cabinet
level people, but they're certainly not secretaries you know in
different wings of the White House either. They're somewhere in
between with this. Now, was there any discussion with Kamala
Harris maybe wanting to keep her on board? Do they
go through that process or is this like, okay, somebody
different is going to be in here from the person
I work with I'm going to start polishing on my
(02:23):
resume and making planes. I got to move on here.
I'm going to leave the White House, but I'm not
leaving the team. I'm still pro Democrat. Let's go. But
was there ever a thought that, hey, maybe Kamala says,
we'll hold on to it.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well, I think, you know, if Harris wins the election,
she'll staff up. However she wants to staff up, but
right now on getting her elected. And so if you
do see people at House, I would imagine a lot
of them are gonna, you know, move to either super
PACs affiliated with Harris, or there's campaign itself. I think
one of the benefits that Harris has had is that
(02:55):
she was able to largely inherit the existing campaign infrastructure,
right you've seen her even plus, for instance, the campaign
manager of the campaign share, most of the spokespeople that
the press office, the communications staff or what was the
Biden campaign have just sort of seamlessly been transitioned to
the Harris campaign. And so there does seem to be
(03:16):
a willingness on her part to keep a lot of
that team, at least for the time being, in place.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
All right, Well, let's talk about some of the other
staff members in the White House, even if the party
changes and Donald Trump comes back to the White House,
are there staff members inside the White House that are
you know, been there for twenty years that go with
either flow Democrat Republican leadership in the White House.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, there's a lot of what we call career career
officers and career employees in the executive branch. A lot
of them kind of work in support roles. When you
think about kind of it, when you think about kind
of the management, you talk about kind of the staff
(03:59):
that you see if you come to a White House event,
there's ushers and there's kind of event stanners. All of
those usually are folks that have been here for a
really long time that the household staff are often called.
They sometimes have been here thirty forty years. So you
wouldn't expect much turnover there. Sometimes there's some, but those
(04:19):
are traditionally not kind of partisan administration type positions.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I would think that maybe the president, whoever it would be,
since we're so divided right now, if Kamala Harris wins,
and you know, some of those people end up staying,
but if Donald Trump wins, maybe they change. Because do
they ever concern themselves as far as the president in
the White House that maybe, hey, that person's been on
board here and kind of really supported Joe Biden in
his policies, but you know it kind of was quiet
(04:45):
about it, but stayed in the background. There's not one
of those people. It's you know, it's going to go away.
They've been here for thirty years. Do they remove some
of those people sometimes in fear that they might be
moles in gathering information?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well, most of the I don't think so. Most of
these folks are professionals. Like I said, I'm not talking
about people in kind of policymaking roles, right, people right
responsible for the operation of the building itself, right, And
so I've not heard of that happening. Doesn't mean that
it doesn't. If it did, I'm sure it would happen
(05:16):
kind of quietly. But as I said, there are a
lot of people here at the White House who work here,
you know, regardless of who the president is. And that's
kind of been a long tradition. You get that a
lot on Capitol Hill as well. You need people who
know what they are doing, right, And so like any
other like any other profession you know, you have people
(05:38):
that you know kind of just stay on board regardless
of who's at the top post.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
All right, very good, Thanks so much, Jared. I appreciate you.
Jared Halpert in DC at the White House,
Joining us now Jared helping our Fox correspondent in DC
and the latest time what's happening with staff members at
the White House. Is this to be giving you the
great departures?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This just one, well right now, it's one, But I
think it could signal perhaps a little bit of a
larger exodus. And you would expect that right once President
Biden announced that he was not running for reelection, You're
going to see, especially some of the strategy folks start
to step away. That's what we've seen here with the
departure of Anita Done. She has been a longtime member
(00:30):
of kind of what you would consider the inner circle
for President Biden, the chief architect of the twenty twenty
campaign at the White House. She had been in charge
of a lot of the communications, the messaging for things
like the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure, Build chips and sciences.
She was expected to play a pretty senior role in
(00:54):
the re election bit as well. She instead will now
be a senior advisor head up what is called Future
Forward at super pac committed to raise about three hundred
million dollars for Vice President Kamala Harris. So again, I
think it's sort of signals that especially the strategy folks
you know, are probably going to start figuring out how
(01:15):
do they best conserve the party. The Vice President, Anita
Dunn had kind of been signaled as the fall guy,
if you will, for the debate, and so not entirely
surprising that she is moving forward, But listen, she is
probably still somebody who is going to have a senior
(01:39):
position here for Democrats moving forward. She, like I said,
has been a long time player in democratic politics, going
back to the Carter White House. She was a senior
advisor to Barack Obama and his campaigns in eight In
twenty twelve, she's a House communications director. She's married to
Bob Bauer, who is a former White House counsel. President
(02:00):
Biden's now personal attorney.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
All right, let's talk about these people. They're not cabinet
level people, but they're certainly not secretaries you know in
different wings of the White House either. They're somewhere in
between with this. Now, was there any discussion with Kamala
Harris maybe wanting to keep her on board? Do they
go through that process or is this like, okay, somebody
different is going to be in here from the person
I work with I'm going to start polishing on my
(02:23):
resume and making planes. I got to move on here.
I'm going to leave the White House, but I'm not
leaving the team. I'm still pro Democrat. Let's go. But
was there ever a thought that, hey, maybe Kamala says,
we'll hold on to it.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well, I think, you know, if Harris wins the election,
she'll staff up. However she wants to staff up, but
right now on getting her elected. And so if you
do see people at House, I would imagine a lot
of them are gonna, you know, move to either super
PACs affiliated with Harris, or there's campaign itself. I think
one of the benefits that Harris has had is that
(02:55):
she was able to largely inherit the existing campaign infrastructure,
right you've seen her even plus, for instance, the campaign
manager of the campaign share, most of the spokespeople that
the press office, the communications staff or what was the
Biden campaign have just sort of seamlessly been transitioned to
the Harris campaign. And so there does seem to be
(03:16):
a willingness on her part to keep a lot of
that team, at least for the time being, in place.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
All right, Well, let's talk about some of the other
staff members in the White House, even if the party
changes and Donald Trump comes back to the White House,
are there staff members inside the White House that are
you know, been there for twenty years that go with
either flow Democrat Republican leadership in the White House.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, there's a lot of what we call career career
officers and career employees in the executive branch. A lot
of them kind of work in support roles. When you
think about kind of it, when you think about kind
of the management, you talk about kind of the staff
(03:59):
that you see if you come to a White House event,
there's ushers and there's kind of event stanners. All of
those usually are folks that have been here for a
really long time that the household staff are often called.
They sometimes have been here thirty forty years. So you
wouldn't expect much turnover there. Sometimes there's some, but those
(04:19):
are traditionally not kind of partisan administration type positions.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I would think that maybe the president, whoever it would be,
since we're so divided right now, if Kamala Harris wins,
and you know, some of those people end up staying,
but if Donald Trump wins, maybe they change. Because do
they ever concern themselves as far as the president in
the White House that maybe, hey, that person's been on
board here and kind of really supported Joe Biden in
his policies, but you know it kind of was quiet
(04:45):
about it, but stayed in the background. There's not one
of those people. It's you know, it's going to go away.
They've been here for thirty years. Do they remove some
of those people sometimes in fear that they might be
moles in gathering information?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well, most of the I don't think so. Most of
these folks are professionals. Like I said, I'm not talking
about people in kind of policymaking roles, right, people right
responsible for the operation of the building itself, right, And
so I've not heard of that happening. Doesn't mean that
it doesn't. If it did, I'm sure it would happen
(05:16):
kind of quietly. But as I said, there are a
lot of people here at the White House who work here,
you know, regardless of who the president is. And that's
kind of been a long tradition. You get that a
lot on Capitol Hill as well. You need people who
know what they are doing, right, And so like any
other like any other profession you know, you have people
(05:38):
that you know kind of just stay on board regardless
of who's at the top post.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
All right, very good, Thanks so much, Jared. I appreciate you.
Jared Halpert in DC at the White House,
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