US foreign policy spokesperson Ned Price steps down

WASHINGTON: Ned Price, who explained US foreign policies to the world at the State Department’s daily news briefings, will step down next week for a new, policy-focused job in the same department.

Mr Price, the department’s spokesman since the first day of the Biden administration, will now work directly for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“This will be my last on-camera briefing,” Mr Price told journalists at Monday afternoon’s news briefing. “My first briefing (was) on Feb 2nd of 2021.” He will continue to do telephonic briefings till March 17.

Mr Price also confirmed that he would continue to work for the State Department. “I’m not going far after leaving this job. I deeply admire this institution. I deeply admire the people who make it tick,” he said.

Mr Price, who also served as spokesperson at both the CIA and the National Security Council in the Obama administration, said his new job would be a return to where his career began, an policy analyst.

“I started as a public servant as an analyst at the CIA, and I ended up in this job because of a series of accidents, fateful accidents,” he told NBC News. “I have loved being in this line of work for the past several years. And one of the things I love most about it is the connection to the policy.”

Journalists have praised Mr Price for restoring the daily on-camera press briefings, a practice that was halted during the Trump administration.

“On behalf of everyone in here, we appreciate your returning to the podium daily, and your willingness to engage even questions that are irritating or uncomfortable for you, at length, and even though your responses may be infuriating to us,” said one of the journalists while responding to Mr Price’s remarks. “So anyway, thank you.”

President of the State Department Correspondents’ Association Shaun Tandon said restoration of the daily briefings was “a tribute to the health of American democracy” and thanked Mr Price for doing so. “It offers an opportunity for press from around the world to question the foreign policy of the United States, often critically.”

Secretary Blinken too thanked Mr Price for resuming the daily press briefings, noting that it gave “journalists the chance to regularly ask tough questions of our policy.”

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2023