Known largely for her tough image as she addresses media-persons on a daily basis, White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s gentler side came to the fore when, on Thursday, she publicly praised her Indian American assistant Vedant Patel. He was described as “super-talented.”
Ms Psaki said she often jokes with Vedant that they give him easy assignments because he’s super talented. She also feels that he has a very promising career in government ahead of him.
She described his contributions as excellent for everything he does to help her and President Biden on a day to day basis. Vedant has a desk in the lower press office and handles all media queries related to immigration and climate change. He was born in Gujarat but raised in California.
He has been Assistant Press Secretary at the White House from the first day of the Biden administration. Vedant earned his MBA from the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business and graduated from Riverside’s University of California.
Before joining the administration, he worked as a senior spokesperson at the Presidential Inauguration Committee. He was also a regional communications director in the Biden campaign.
Vedant started his career as deputy communications director to the former Congressman Mike Honda from December 2012 to November 2015. After that, he served as Communications Director for Mike Honda for Congress from Nov 2015 to January 2017.
After that, he served as regional press secretary and director of AAPI Media from April 2017 to November 2018 and was communications director to Indian American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from November 2018 to April 2019.
Priya Singh was the first Indian American White House Press Assistant as she served from 2009 to 2010 during the Obama Administration. Another Indian American, Raj Shah, served as the White House Deputy Press Secretary from 2017 to 2019 under the Trump Administration.
Megha Bhattacharya joined Vedant Patel in the White House press shop a few weeks ago. Till recently, Sabrina Singh, also from California, was the deputy press secretary to Vice President Kamala Harris.
