White House press secretary Jay Carney stepping down

by Jed Lewison

Community

Friday, May. 30, 2014 Friday, May. 30, 2014 at 11:13:32am PDT

President Obama and Jay Carney embrace after the president announce Carney's resignation

Busy day in the White House: A short time ago, President Obama came into the press briefing room for the second time of the day, this time to announce that press secretary Jay Carney would be stepping down and will be replaced by deputy press secretary Josh Earnest.

Earnest is a longtime Obama aide who served as his communications director in Iowa. Carney had been press secretary since February 2011 when he took over for Robert Gibbs.

Despite the announcement of Carney's departure, neither he nor the president set a timetable for his move, but Carney did say that Earnest would travel with the president to Europe next week. Carney also said he hadn't decided yet what his next career move would be.