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I would let up on the Marie Harf harfing, butt the news just came in that we’re breaking up the old JayVee team; Jen has been promoted to Varsity and will be moving up from her Foggy Bottom assignment to be Big Guy’s personal communications assistant over at Foggy Top.No more Psakiing at State! We’re moving up!This should be fun: Now we’re going to get Psakied while simultaneously being Grubered.Unfortunately I’ve learned that Marie Harf will NOT be moving up to the top job at State. Some claim it’s due to this thesis she wrote in college: State Department spokeswoman...

WASHINGTON (AP) — State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki will become President Barack Obama's new communications director, filling a key slot as Obama embarks on the final two years of his presidency, White House officials said Thursday. She replaces veteran Democratic media strategist Jennifer Palmieri, who is leaving the White House to join Hillary Rodham Clinton's likely presidential campaign. Psaki will step into her new role April 1. In a statement, Obama embraced Palmieri as a "good friend" friend and praised her as a "brilliant and effective communications director and trusted adviser."

The Obama administration’s new excuse to explain why Vice-President Joe Biden will be “out of the country” when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses Congress next month is that he has to attend a Panama government inauguration – that occurred last July. The vice president of the United States normally attends joint sessions of Congress, but National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan stated last month, “As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections…. The President has been clear about his opposition to Congress passing new legislation...

Internal State Department emails appear to show “genuine panic” during last week’s evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, Fox News chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reported exclusively this morning. After reviewing internal State Department emails, Herridge said that standard procedures to protect sensitive information were not followed during the hasty evacuation from Sana’a. She described panicked emails circulating at the highest levels of the State Department despite spokeswoman Jen Psaki downplaying the situation at her Feb. 11 briefing. …

Jen Psaki the latest Obama spokesperson to stutter an explanation as to why he described the attack on kosher store as just 'random'. It's the controversy that just won't go away - and it's hard to understand why. Since US President Barack Obama's controversial comments during a recent interview, in which he downplayed the anti-Semitic nature of the deadly shooting attack at a kosher supermarket in Paris last month, government spokespeople have been falling over themselves to explain what exactly he meant. And failing pretty miserably. In the interview with Vox, published earlier this week, the US President asserted that...

ED HENRY: The point actually was that people were targeted because of their religion. Though Jen Psaki of the State Deptartment inaccurately suggested not all of the victims in the market were Jewish, though in fact all four were... Video at link...

US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki has been caught on a hot mic calling one of her prepared statements about the acquittal of Egypt’s ex-leader Hosni Mubarak “ridiculous.”

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki was seemingly caught on a hot mic calling one of her prepared statements on one of America’s policies on Egypt “ridiculous” following a press conference. When reporters, including the Associated Press’ Matt Lee, pressed her to comment on the acquittal of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, she provided a pre-written response. “Generally, we continue to believe that upholding impartial standards of accountability will advance the political consensus on which Egypt’s long-term stability and economic growth depends,” she said. “But beyond that, I would refer you to the Egyptian government.” She refused to say anything...

Ambassadors from five major European Union (EU) member states met with the Foreign Ministry's senior diplomat Alon Ushpiz in Jerusalem on Thursday, where they voiced opposition to the demolition of the homes of Arab terrorists. Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain were the five countries whose consul generals argued that such demolitions, which are meant as a deterrent for future terrorists and a punishment for heinous crimes, are "counterproductive." The ambassadors also denounced the attack on a Jerusalem synagogue this Tuesday in which four Jews and a Druze police officer were murdered by two Arab terrorists, reports Haaretz citing Israeli...

The United States Wednesday sharply condemned Israeli plans to build 200 new Jewish homes in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood, according to AFP, warning such moves would only "exacerbate" spiraling tensions in the city. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also denounced the alleged torching of a mosque blamed on suspected Jewish extremists calling it a "hateful and provocative" act and urging officials to investigate. "We are deeply concerned by this decision, particularly given the tense situation in Jerusalem, as well as the unequivocal and unanimous position of the United States and others in the international community opposing such construction in east Jerusalem,"...

The United States on Monday condemned the two stabbing attacks in Tel Aviv and in Gush Etzion, while urging both Israelis and Palestinian Arabs to ease rising tensions. "We strongly condemn the stabbing today in the West Bank, and we deeply regret the loss of life," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, in a statement made before soldier Almog Shiloni, who was critically wounded in the Tel Aviv attack, died of his wounds. "Our condolences go out to the victim's family. It is absolutely critical that parties take every possible measure to protect civilians and de-escalate tensions," added Psaki. .....

WASHINGTON — Israel’s continued building across the Green Line is “incompatible with their stated desire to live in a peaceful society,” State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday, in response to reports that Israel would continue to advance building plans in controversial Jerusalem neighborhoods. Psaki said that while the US had yet to hear an “official announcement” that plans to build in East Jerusalem would go forward, the US is “certainly deeply concerned” by the reports. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the topic more broadly during a phone call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend, Psaki said,...

As State Department spokesman Jen Psaki appeared to be going out of her way to avoid implicating Hamas in an act of terrorism, she was coincidentally dressed in a shade of green reminiscent of Hamas’ color. When asked by AP reporter Matt Lee about reports that the terrorist leanings of a 14 year-old Palestinian-American boy named Orwa Hammad, Psaki pleaded ignorance. Hammad was reportedly hurling molotov cocktails before being killed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF); Psaki played dumb.

(CNSNews.com) - State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki would not directly respond Thursday to a question from CNSNews.com asking her how many American Ebola victims would be an acceptable price for the American people to pay for the administration’s policy of allowing people to travel to the United States from three Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa—without even putting them through a quarantine period.On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security announced a new policy for dealing with travelers entering this country from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, which are currently experiencing an Ebola...

The exceptionally vicious condemnation of Israel with regard to housing construction in the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem is not merely misguided, but also reflects irrational bias. Incidentally, this behavior also has many ominous parallels to the inhumane incarceration of Jonathan Pollard, despite pleas for the commutation of his sentence from all sectors of American society. The harsh outburst relates to a 2,600-unit housing project planned as an extension of an exclusively Jewish neighborhood adjacent to the suburb of Talpiot and Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, both within the Green Line. It incorporates primarily barren land on which Ethiopian and Russian immigrants had...

One of Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd’s favorite lines is, though paraphrased here, that a scandal or event which has the most potential to seriously damage a political figure is one which plays into an already preconceived type. Chris Christie’s “bridgegate” scandal, in which he was accused of punishing the constituents of a political adversary over a trivial matter, played into the type of him as a bully. The Clintons were wounded when the press was barred from conducting unapproved interviews at a recent Clinton Global Initiative gathering, and were even escorted in and out of bathroom stalls in...

State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki had the difficult task of defending President Obama’s decision to pull troops out of Iraq in 2011 – and Megyn Kelly didn’t offer her any help. On Thursday, Kelly invited Psaki on The Kelly File to respond to former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s claim that the president’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq was a prematurely poor action, especially considering Panetta and several generals had warned the president against such action. Panetta says as much in his new memoir. Here was Psaki’s response to these excerpts from Panetta’s book: “But what happened in 2011 was that...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Friday of a “genocidal crime” in Gaza, telling the United Nations negotiations had failed and the time for Palestinian independence had come, and drawing a sharp rebuke from Washington, AFP reports. Abbas vowed to seek war crimes prosecutions against Israel over what he called the 50-day “war of genocide” in Gaza that allegedly killed 2,140 Palestinian Arabs—at least half of whom were projected to be terrorists, according to expert analysis. […] The US State Department reacted with a tersely-worded statement, calling the speech provocative and saying it would undermine peace efforts....

Why Israel? Why now? Though few Americans paid any attention at the time, in November of last year, Secretary of State John Kerry announced to the world that this summer would be defined by violence against the Jewish state. Almost as he had been tipped off, the Secretary of State warned Israel to make a deal with the likes of Hamas and Fatah, Palestinian parties who do not acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, Kerry said, “Does Israel want a third intifada? … “I believe that if we do not resolve the issues between Palestinians and Israelis; if we do not...

ow badly have US-Israel relations deteriorated in recent weeks? If Israeli media reports are any indication, tensions boiled over to the point where a phone call between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ended due to "communications problems" earlier this week. Both men have not spoken since, according to the State Department. Kerry's spokesperson, Jen Psaki, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the two men have not spoken since a brief phone call over the situation in Gaza ended because of "communications problems."