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Jennifer Palmieri

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Jen Palmieri
Palmieri for The Circus on Showtime in 2021
White House Communications Director
In office
January 25, 2013 – April 1, 2015
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byDaniel Pfeiffer
Succeeded byJen Psaki
Personal details
Born (1966-11-15) November 15, 1966 (age 58)
Pascagoula, Mississippi, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationAmerican University (BA)

Jennifer M. Palmieri (/pɒlˈmɛəri/;[1] born November 15, 1966) is an American political advisor and media personality who served as White House Director of Communications from 2013 to 2015 and Director of Communications for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. Palmieri was the co-host of the political documentary series The Circus on Showtime from 2021 to 2023.[2]

Early life and education

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Palmieri was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi.[3] Palmieri's family frequently moved growing up due to her father's career in the US Navy, ultimately settling in California when she was 11.[4] After attending American University, she began her career working for then-Congressman Leon Panetta (D-CA).[3][5]

Career

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Palmieri (center) among advisors to President Barack Obama (left) in 2013

Palmieri served as White House Communications Director for U.S. President Barack Obama.[6] Before her service at the White House, she served as the Senior Vice President of Communications for the Center for American Progress and the President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Earlier, Palmieri was the National Press Secretary for the 2004 John Edwards presidential campaign and for the Democratic National Committee in 2002, after a brief time at the advocacy group Americans for Gun Safety. She served in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, then deputy director of Scheduling and Advance, and finally as a Deputy White House Press Secretary the last three years of Clinton's presidency.[7]

WikiLeaks 2016 email hack

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Palmieri attracted controversy when an email chain allegedly showing Clinton aides joking about Catholics and evangelicals in 2011 was released by WikiLeaks.[8] U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that individuals with connections to the Russian government had conducted a spear-phishing attack against Clinton campaign chair John Podesta[9][10] as part of an operation to prevent Hillary Clinton from winning the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[11][10]

In the emails between Palmieri, Podesta, and John Halpin of the Center for American Progress, Halpin reportedly wrote that 21st Century Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp Chief Executive Robert Thomson were drawn to Catholicism because of the faith's "systemic thought and severely backward gender relations."[12]

Palmieri, herself a Catholic,[13] purportedly responded that she believes Murdoch, Thomson, and many other conservatives are Catholic because they think it is "the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion ... Their rich friends wouldn't understand if they became evangelicals", she wrote.[12]

The president of CatholicVote.org, a religious conservative 501(c)(4) organization, demanded Palmieri resign from the campaign,[14] saying:

Everyone has a unique faith journey, and it's just insulting to make blanket statements maligning people's motives for converting to another faith tradition. Had Palmieri spoken this way about other groups she would be dismissed. Palmieri must resign immediately or be fired.[15]

Podesta did not respond in the email thread. Palmieri said she "didn't recognize (the email) ... [but] we are not going to fact check each of the emails that were stolen, hacked by Russian-led efforts in an effort to hurt our campaign."[16][17][18]

Hillary Clinton presidential campaign 2016

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At a Harvard University forum held on December 1, 2016, to define the Clinton Campaign for the historical record, Palmieri ascribed the loss to (1) alleged white supremacists within the Trump campaign, (2) the e-mail scandal (which she believed reporters should not have covered), and (3) claimed "[that] many political journalists had a personal dislike for the Democratic nominee."[19] Palmieri's role in the campaign is described in the book by Donna Brazile, Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House and Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign.

The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth

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Palmieri joined the Showtime documentary series, The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, as guest host, beginning October 13, 2019, with season four episode twelve, Desperate Times, Desperate Measures.[20][21][22][23][24][25]

Palmieri was announced to be a permanent co-host beginning on January 10, 2021, with the premiere of season 6.[26] She remained with the series until its end in 2023.[27]

Palmieri is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair.[28][29]

2024 Kamala Harris presidential campaign

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In August 2024, campaign officials for the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris announced that Palmieri will be a senior adviser to Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman.[30]

References

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  1. ^ The White House (February 11, 2013). Jennifer Palmieri on the State of the Union (web video). Retrieved July 16, 2016.
  2. ^ Malonepublished, Michael (December 15, 2020). "'The Circus' Back on Showtime Jan. 10". Broadcasting Cable.
  3. ^ a b Easton, Nina. "The loyal — and discreet — political operative behind Hillary Clinton", fortune.com; retrieved October 13, 2016.
  4. ^ Kurtz, Judy (February 24, 2021). "Jennifer Palmieri: 'Ever since I was aware of politics, I wanted to be in politics'".
  5. ^ "Jennifer Palmieri profile". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved September 30, 2014 – via National Archives.
  6. ^ Bridges, Frances. "Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri's Advice To Women Running For Office". Forbes. Retrieved November 20, 2018.
  7. ^ "Jennifer Palmieri". ballotpedia.org. Retrieved September 13, 2022.
  8. ^ Stein, Jeff. "What 20,000 pages of hacked WikiLeaks emails teach us about Hillary Clinton". Vox. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  9. ^ Franceschi-Bicchierai, Lorenzo (October 20, 2016). "How Hackers Broke Into John Podesta and Colin Powell's Gmail Accounts". Motherboard. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  10. ^ a b "Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House". Washington Post. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  11. ^ "Why Putin Has an Electoral Bone to Pick With Hillary Clinton". Time. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  12. ^ a b Merica, Dan (October 13, 2016). "Palmieri doesn't recognize controversial email about Catholics". CNN. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  13. ^ "Brian Fallon on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  14. ^ Master, Cyra (October 12, 2016). "Catholic group demands top Clinton aide resign over leaked emails". TheHill. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  15. ^ "CatholicVote.org Demands Clinton's Anti-Catholic Spokeswoman Resign". catholicvote.org. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  16. ^ Pulliam Bailey, Sarah. "WikiLeaks emails appear to show Clinton spokeswoman joking about Catholics and evangelicals". Washington Post. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
  17. ^ Merica, Dan (October 13, 2016). "Palmieri doesn't recognize controversial email about Catholics". CNN. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  18. ^ Staff (October 14, 2016). "13 revelations from WikiLeaks' hacked Clinton emails". BBC News. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
  19. ^ Tumulty, Karen; Rucker, Phillip. "Shouting match erupts between Clinton and Trump aides". Washington Post. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  20. ^ Heilemann, John (October 13, 2019). "@jheil John Heilemann on Twitter: "#Superstar… "". Twitter. Archived from the original on October 13, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2020. @jheil Retweeted @jmpalmieri Friends, I had the pleasure of being a guest host on @SHO_TheCircus this week. So impressed with talent & professionalism of entire team. Minor miracle that they pull off this high quality show week after week. Tune in tonight at 8 pm to see me & @jheil w/ @CoryBooker in DSM. pic.twitter.com/jm4dJzcYU2
  21. ^ "THE CIRCUS CRISSCROSSES IOWA FOR THE FINAL CAUCUS SPRINT". ViacomCBS Press Express. CBS Broadcasting Inc. February 3, 2020. Archived from the original on August 21, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  22. ^ "THE CIRCUS HEADS SOUTH FOR A PALMETTO STATE BRAWL". ViacomCBS Press Express. CBS Broadcasting Inc. February 28, 2020. Archived from the original on August 21, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  23. ^ "THE CIRCUS IS BACK ON SHOWTIME FOR BIDEN'S VP PICK". ViacomCBS Press Express. CBS Broadcasting Inc. August 14, 2020. Archived from the original on August 21, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  24. ^ "Showtime's "THE CIRCUS" Season Finale Taping, Screening and Discussion". Ivory Zorich. May 4, 2017. Retrieved August 21, 2020.[permanent dead link‍]
  25. ^ "Former Head of FBI Counter-Intel division. TRANSCRIPT". The Last Word w/ Lawrence O'Donnell. MSNBC. April 23, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  26. ^ "'The Circus' Season 6 | How to watch, live stream, TV channel, time". January 10, 2021.
  27. ^ "Showtime's Political Docuseries 'The Circus' To End Run After Current Season". November 7, 2023.
  28. ^ "Jennifer Palmieri : Latest Articles". Vanity Fair. Condé Nast.
  29. ^ "Jennifer Palmieri". Harry Walker Agency. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
  30. ^ Michael Scherer; Tyler Pager (August 2, 2024). "Harris hires Obama campaign veterans to join 2024 effort, replacing Biden loyalists". The Washington Post.
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Political offices
Preceded by White House Director of Communications
2013–2015 		Succeeded by
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