Longtime Obama aide stepping down

President Obama’s longtime aide and confidant Dan Pfeiffer plans to leave the administration in the coming weeks, the White House announced Wednesday.

Pfeiffer is the longest-serving staffer from the 2008 presidential campaign, and the last of the senior officials from that campaign to still work at the White House. He holds the position of senior adviser, one of a small cadre of top advisers to the president.

{mosads}“Dan has been beside me on every step of this incredible journey, starting with those earliest days of the campaign in 2007,” President Obama said in a statement. “And through it all, he’s been smart, steady, tireless and true to the values we started with.

“Like everyone else in the White House, I’ve benefited from his political savvy and his advocacy for working people. He’s a good man and a good friend, and I’m going to miss having him just down the hall from me,” he added.

Pfeiffer informed the president of his intention to leave the day after the State of the Union trip as the pair traveled to Idaho. According to a White House official, Pfeiffer felt “comfortable moving on” because he believed the administration was in a “position of strength” following a lame-duck session when the president’s poll numbers spiked.

Pfeiffer’s departure has been the subject of speculation for months, and he has not denied the possibility he would leave when asked by reporters. But the White House was also sensitive about high-profile departures in the wake of last year’s devastating midterm election losses.

His departure will coincide with the exit of John Podesta, the president’s counselor, who is expected to take a post with Hillary Clinton’s likely presidential campaign. Podesta’s portfolio will be taken over by Brian Deese, a top official at the Office of Management and Budget. The White House did not announce an immediate replacement for Pfeiffer.

At the White House, Pfeiffer was known for his sometimes combative relationship with the press and often identified by critics of the White House as evidence that the president’s leadership team was too insular. 

In recent months, he has overseen a project to identify digital outlets to reach new audiences. For the State of the Union address, the administration used Twitter, Instagram, and Medium to promote the president’s speech, and Pfeiffer was the official who suggested posting the full text online before Obama gave the speech.

“Over the last few months, he’s been leading an internal review of how we structure our communications apparatus in a rapidly changing media environment – including meeting with Silicon Valley experts to develop recommendations for how we best communicate to audiences in the digital age,” the White House official said. “Dan will finish this project before departing in early March.”