White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that she received threats during her time serving in the Biden administration, including texts and letters sent to her personal address.
Psaki, who has held her position since the start of the Biden administration, described the threatening messages as the most difficult part of the role, saying it made her fear for her children’s safety.
“The thing that has been hardest, personally, is I have had threats, I have had nasty letters, texts to me with my personal address, the names of my children. It crosses lines, you know, and that’s when it becomes a little scary. And that has been the most personally difficult aspect of this job,” Psaki told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Thursday morning.
“I recognize I am in many ways a public figure, people can like me, dislike me, that’s OK,” Psaki said, noting she considers that freedom of speech. “My kids are six and four and I worry about their safety.”
Psaki later acknowledged that there have been instances in which she shared information with the Secret Service about threats.
“I have had threats … people threatening to come to my house, letters, texts,” she said. “I am not saying I am the first. This is common and that is what should be alarming to people.”
She said that no one has physically come to her home, but added, “There is a circulation of my address among the Arlington Republican Party.”
The Arlington GOP in a statement to The Hill said it “has not publicly disseminated any Biden Administration official’s home address.”
Psaki, who assumed the role of press secretary when Biden took office last January, is set to leave her position in the coming days. Her last press briefing will be Friday.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the current White House principal deputy press secretary, will take over the role of press secretary when Psaki departs, making history as the first Black woman and openly gay person to hold the role.