Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary Marc Lotter will leave the White House at the end of the month to serve as a “top surrogate” outside the administration, Lotter told TPM on Friday.
Axios first reported Lotter’s move, citing sources with knowledge of the situation.
Lotter told TPM there’s no definitive plan for what all his work on the outside will entail, but his promotion of President Donald Trump and Pence’s policies will include TV appearances, among other things.
“It gives me an ability to expand upon and the ability to talk about their messages and what they’re doing in their political efforts,” he said, calling it a more “expansive” role.
He will stay at the White House until the end of September to help transition the office and hire someone to replace him as press secretary, he said.
Lotter said he met Pence in 1996 when they were both working in the media. He went on to serve in Pence’s administration when he was governor of Indiana and on his gubernatorial re-election campaign.
He was hired as Pence’s traveling press secretary when Trump announced Pence as his running mate and has been serving under the Vice President since Trump was sworn into office.
Great. Political shows, which are chock full of conservatives during Democratic and Republican administrations alike, will have one more noisebox to trumpet his former boss’s terrible policies.
Trump famously committed to preventing officials from profiting from their service in his administration when they left, via a ban on post-employment lobbying.
So now you don’t call yourself a lobbyist. You’re a surrogate.
Pence wanted to hear this news over a private dinner with Lotter. But he can’t eat alone with another man. Wait, do I have that right?
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Pence had a press secretary? Who knew?
blackmail