Spokesperson for the United States Department of State
U.S. government position
The Spokesperson for the United States Department of State is a U.S. government official whose primary responsibility is to serve as the spokesperson for the United States Department of State and the U.S. government's foreign policies. The position is located in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs .[ 1]
Historically, the State Department Spokesperson and the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs were synonymous names for the same role. However, this has not been the case since Philip J. Crowley 's tenure ended in 2011.[ 2] Since 2011, the Assistant Secretary and the State Department Spokesperson have been two separate roles held by different people.[ 3] In late 2015, the two roles were once again merged with the appointment of Spokesperson John Kirby as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs.[ 4]
Responsibilities
The State Department spokesperson is responsible for communicating the foreign policy of the United States to American and foreign media, typically in a daily press briefing. The daily press briefing typically includes a summary of the secretary of state 's schedule, any upcoming trips by the secretary, the president of the United States , or other distinguished State Department officials including under secretaries and assistant secretaries , and official reactions and positions of the U.S. government on certain news of the day, followed by Q&A with journalists attending the briefing. A tradition that began during the tenure of John Foster Dulles as secretary of state in the 1950s,[ 5] the daily press briefing is on-the-record , and is recorded and made available on the State Department's website.
The State Department spokesperson will also often accompany the secretary of state on travel to assist with press conferences .
List of State Department spokespeople
#
Tenure
Spokesperson
President
Secretary of State
1
1927–1945
Michael J. McDermott [ 6]
Calvin Coolidge , Herbert Hoover , Franklin D. Roosevelt , Harry S. Truman
Frank B. Kellogg , Henry L. Stimson , Cordell Hull , Edward Stettinius, Jr.
2
1945–1948
Roger Tubby [ 7]
Harry S. Truman
James F. Byrnes , George C. Marshall
3
1955–1963
Lincoln White[ 8]
Dwight D. Eisenhower , John F. Kennedy
John Foster Dulles , Christian Herter , Dean Rusk
4
1964–1973
Robert J. McCloskey [ 9]
Lyndon B. Johnson , Richard Nixon
Dean Rusk , William P. Rogers
5
1966–1970
Carl E. Bartch[ 10]
6
1974–1976
Robert Anderson [ 11]
Gerald Ford
Henry Kissinger
7
1977–1980
Hodding Carter III [ 12]
Jimmy Carter
Cyrus Vance
8
1980–1981
William J. Dyess [ 13]
Edmund Muskie
9
1981–1982
Dean E. Fischer [ 14]
Ronald Reagan
Alexander Haig
10
1982–1985
Robert John Hughes [ 15]
George P. Shultz
11
1985–1986
Bernard Kalb [ 16]
12
1986–1989
Charles Edgar Redman [ 17]
13
1989–1992
Margaret D. Tutwiler [ 18]
George H. W. Bush
James Baker
14
1992–1993
Richard Boucher [ 19]
Lawrence Eagleburger
15
1993–1995
Mike McCurry [ 20]
Bill Clinton
Warren Christopher
16
1995–1997
R. Nicholas Burns [ 21]
17
1997–2000
James Rubin [ 22]
Madeleine Albright
18
2001–2005
Richard Boucher [ 19]
George W. Bush
Colin Powell
19
2005–2009
Sean McCormack [ 23]
Condoleezza Rice
20
2009-2010
Ian C. Kelly
Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
21
2010-2011
Philip J. Crowley
22
2011–2013
Victoria Nuland
23
2013–2015
Jen Psaki
John Kerry
24
2015
Marie Harf
25
2015–2017
John Kirby
26
2017
Mark Toner
Donald Trump
Rex Tillerson
27
2017–2019
Heather Nauert [ 24]
Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo
28
2019–2021
Morgan Ortagus
Mike Pompeo
29
2021–2023
Ned Price
Joe Biden
Antony Blinken
30
2023–present
Matthew Miller
References
^ "Bureau of Public Affairs: Senior Official Biographies" . U.S. Department of State. October 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015 .
^ "Victoria Nuland to be State Department spokesman" . Foreign Policy . May 16, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2015 .
^ "Biographies for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy: Senior Officials" . August 10, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015 .
^ "John Kirby" . U.S. Department of State . December 11, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2016 .
^ "In first month of Trump presidency, State Department has been sidelined" . Washington Post . February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 25, 2017 .
^ Gleijeses, Piero (1991). Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1954 . Princeton University Press.
^ Neal, Steve (2003). HST: Memories of the Truman Years . Southern Illinois University Press.
^ "Lincoln White is Dead at 77; U.S. Spokesman in Cold War" . The New York Times . April 28, 1983. Retrieved November 28, 2015 .
^ "Robert J. McCloskey, State Dept. Spokesman, Dies at 74" . The New York Times . November 30, 1996. Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "Carl E. Bartch Dies at 78" . Washington Post . October 2, 1989. Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "Robert Anderson Papers" . Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library . Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "William Hodding Carter III (1935–)" . U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "William Jennings Dyess (1929–1966)" . U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "Dean E. Fischer (1936–)" . U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "(Robert) John Hughes (1930–)" . U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "Bernard Kalb: From NBC to the State Department" . Brookings Institution . October 2, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "Charles Edgar Redman (1943–)" . U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "Margaret Debardeleben Tutwiler (1950–)" . U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian . Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ a b "Richard A. Boucher" . U.S. Department of State. February 21, 2006. Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "And the good news is...: A conversation with former White House Press Secretaries Dana Perino and Mike McCurry" . American Enterprise Institute . April 23, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "Nicholas Burns" . U.S. Department of State. Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "James Rubin" . Washington Speakers Bureau . Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "Department Spokesman Sean McCormack" . U.S. Department of State. July 18, 2005. Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
^ "Department Press Briefing - April 27, 2017" . U.S. Department of State . Retrieved July 15, 2017 .
External links