Ex-Mark Zuckerberg spox to lead Biden comms team as Bedingfield exits

WASHINGTON — The White House announced Friday that Ben LaBolt, a former spokesman for Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, will become President Biden’s new communications director as Kate Bedingfield departs.

Bedingfield, 41, announced her exit last year — irking some reporters by giving the scoop to the Wall Street Journal while stonewalling other journalists who caught wind of it — but she changed course in late July and stayed on.

LaBolt, also 41, is a DC political veteran who worked in Barack Obama’s Senate office and presidential campaign before following him to the White House in 2009, where he briefly served as an assistant press secretary.

He has worked largely in the private sector since 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile, with clients including Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

LaBolt, serving as spokesman for the Zuckerberg-Chan family office, helped the billionaires manage blowback from allies of former President Donald Trump after the couple gave more than $400 million to local election offices in 2020 to help manage a surge of mail-in voting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Republicans blasted those contributions for allegedly swinging the election to Biden in swing states, LaBolt fired back that more offices in GOP-leaning areas applied for and received funds, though some analysts and critics said Democrats benefited most in critical areas.

LaBolt, known for being unafraid to demand article corrections, likely will bring a more assertive style to the position than Bedingfield, who was largely unseen and unheard by reporters during her two years in office — with the exception of helming some briefings last year before the press secretary job went to Karine Jean-Pierre.

LaBolt’s rise comes as the White House takes a more aggressive posture toward Republicans, who retook power in the House last month, amid a special counsel investigation into whether Biden illegally mishandled classified documents from his vice presidency and Senate years.

Anita Dunn, a senior Biden adviser who rejoined the West Wing last May, is believed to be the current driving force in White House messaging. Dunn, 65, is a former Obama White House communications director and is married to Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal attorney in special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation.

LaBolt joins the staff as Ian Sams, a newly empowered spokesman for the White House counsel’s office, has been offering sharp criticism to rebut House Republican-led oversight probes, while Biden’s own messaging has become increasingly focused on hammering home as often as possible key legislative wins, especially on infrastructure spending — a sign of what observers view as Dunn’s influence.

In contrast to its relative hand-off approach to date under Biden, the White House communications office under former President Donald Trump actively supplemented press officers by serving up relevant information to reporters, passing along messages to senior staffers and even placing “off the record” calls to berate journalists for insufficiently positive coverage.

Biden praised both Bedingfield and LaBolt, noting that the incoming communications director worked to help confirm Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson last year. LaBolt will also be the first openly gay White House communications director, the administration noted.

“Since my time as Vice President, Kate has been a loyal and trusted adviser, through thick and thin,” Biden said.

“Ben has big shoes to fill. I look forward to welcoming him back as a first-rate communicator who’s shown his commitment to public service again and again, and who has a cutting-edge understanding of how Americans consume information.”

Biden added, “I saw him fight for Justice Jackson, and he put his all into helping us make history confirming our cabinet and subcabinet nominees. I’m proud to have him rejoin this team.”