Jen Psaki
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
.AP Photo/Susan Walsh
  • Psaki has celebrated her staff's nuptuals, giving them wedding sashes to wear in the briefing room.
  • "I have committed that I will try to find people love on the team," she told reporters.
  • Psaki said she encourages people to have children "because they're wonderful."

A job on White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki's team can lead to big things – even wedding bells. That's her goal, anyway.

"I have committed that I will try to find people love on the team and a lot of people have gotten married," she told reporters on Thursday at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. She said she also encourages people to have children "because they're wonderful."

The title of "matchmaker" has long gone to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who counts more than a dozen weddings among people who met working in his office.

Psaki, who has been married for 12 years, didn't respond to Insider's inquiry about her staff's nuptials. But she has celebrated their marriages in the briefing room.

 

Last year, after discussing global vaccination efforts, she pivoted to the upcoming wedding of Assistant Press Secretary Emilie Simons. 

"If you join the press team, you get married. That's my promise," she told reporters before giving Simons a "Bride to Be" sash and declaring her "an incredible member of the team."

Deputy White House Press Secretary Chris Meagher — a couple weeks before Simons — received the same treatment, sash and all. "Everybody should know that Chris is marrying up, as many people do," Psaki said.

"I'm glad I got my mask on," Meagher said. "My face is probably beet red."

Meagher later tweeted that he doesn't get to wear a sash that often, "especially in the briefing room." But he agreed that he was "marrying up" with Vanessa Valdivia, communications director for Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat.

Psaki's comments about her team on Thursday came during a discussion about her time serving as press secretary. She leaves the White House on Friday and will turn over the podium to Karine Jean-Pierre, who will become the first Black woman and openly gay person to serve in the role.

When asked how the staff blows off steam, Psaki talked about the social challenges for her team, working 20-hour days and taking texts and calls from reporters at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. — all while wearing masks and often not meeting in person.

She acknowledged almost everyone on her team has had COVID, including her, twice. But she said they've been mindful about trying to be models during COVID by not being out at restaurants or bars, doing things people normally would with colleagues to celebrate events.

"Hopefully we've created an environment that's joyful and a family and even through all these difficult times," she said.

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