Jay Carney (born May 22, 1965) is an American public relations officer and former journalist who served as the 28thWhite House press secretary from 2011 to 2014. He worked asAmazon's senior vice president of global corporate affairs from 2015 to 2022. Since 2022, he has been Global Head of Policy and Communications atAirbnb.
As PresidentObama's chief spokesman for over three years, he remains the longest-serving White House press secretary of the 21st century. During the first two years of theObama administration, Carney was director of communications for then-Vice PresidentJoe Biden.
Prior to his government service, Carney worked for 20 years atTime Magazine, and was the magazine's Washington bureau chief from 2005 to 2008. As a Washington-based reporter, Carney appeared frequently on various political talk shows, includingThis Week with George Stephanopoulos forABC News.
After working as a reporter forThe Miami Herald, in his first job after college, Carney joinedTime magazine as theMiami bureau chief, in December 1988. A Russian speaker, he worked as a correspondent inTime'sMoscow bureau for three years, from 1990 to 1993, covering the collapse of theSoviet Union. He transferred toWashington, D.C., in mid-1993, to report on theBill Clinton White House.[3] He covered Clinton's first term, theNewt Gingrich-led GOP Congress and Clinton's impeachment by theU.S. House of Representatives. He was a traveling correspondent on the 2000 presidential campaigns of Texas GovernorGeorge W. Bush andSenator John McCain, and White House correspondent for Bush's first term as president. Carney was one of a few reporters who were aboardAir Force One with President Bush onSeptember 11, 2001. Carney was Time's Washington bureau deputy chief from 2003 to 2005 and then bureau chief, from September 2005 until December 2008.[4]
On May 30, 2014, President Barack Obama announced Carney would be succeeded byJosh Earnest. At three years, five months on the job, Carney is the longest-serving press secretary sinceMichael McCurry in the mid-1990s.[10]
On March 2, 2015, Carney began working forAmazon as the senior vice president of global corporate affairs.[13] He initially managed a lobbying and public-policy group of about two dozen employees; by 2021, that had increased to about 250 employees. Between 2014 and 2020, the number of registered lobbyists for Amazon tripled, to at least 180.[14] He visited China in 2018 to promoteKindle devices andelectronic books in the Chinese market.[15]
Twice during the month of October 2019, Carney had to walk back controversial public comments. The first was when he contrasted theBush andClinton administrations with theTrump administration. Carney said, "Virtually with no exception, everyone I dealt with in those administrations, whether I personally agreed or disagreed with what they thought were the right policy decisions or the right way to approach things, I never doubted that they were patriots,” he said. “I don’t feel that way now." He later walked back the comments with a tweet saying he had respect for countless patriots working in the United States government.[16]
During the sixth game of the2019 World Series, Carney sent out a tweet complaining about the officiating of the game. Carney tweeted that the officiating was a "disgrace," dubbing the umpires "a bunch of overweight, diabetic, half-blind geriatrics." He apologized the following day.[17]
Carney has two children with his former wife,Claire Shipman, who is now engaged to former pro soccer star and coachKati Jo Spisak. Carney serves on the board of directors of the Urban Institute,Human Rights First,[20] Airbnb.org and Tech:NYC. He is also a devoted fan of the indie rock bandGuided by Voices.[21][22]
