Tommy Vietor | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Vietor in 2017 | |
| Born | Thomas Frederick Vietor IV (1980-08-31)August 31, 1980 (age 44) Boston,Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | Kenyon College (BA) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
Thomas Frederick Vietor IV (born August 31, 1980[1]) is an American political commentator and podcaster. He was a spokesman forPresidentBarack Obama and theUnited States National Security Council from 2011 to 2012.[2][3][4] He is a co-founder[5] ofCrooked Media with fellow former Obama staffersJon Favreau andJon Lovett, and co-hosts the podcastsPod Save America andPod Save the World.
Vietor was raised inDedham, Massachusetts and attendedMilton Academy.[6][7][8] He graduated fromKenyon College in 2002 with aBA inphilosophy.[2] While at Kenyon, he played on the men'slacrosse team[9][10] and was a member of thePsi Upsilon fraternity.[11]
In 2004, Vietor turned down an offer from theJohn Kerrypresidential campaign in favor of joiningIllinois State SenatorBarack Obama for his first statewide run. His first job for Obama was driving the candidate's press van across rural Illinois. During this period, Vietor worked with and learned from Obama spokesmanRobert Gibbs.[2]
Vietor was deputy press secretary for the Barack Obama Illinois Senate Campaign in 2004, then became deputy press secretary for Senator Obama the following year and press secretary the year after that. During Obama's presidential campaign from 2007–2008, he was Iowa Press Secretary.[12]
Following Obama's victory in the2008 presidential election, Vietor became the Assistant White House Press Secretary, from January 2009 to January 2011; he then served as National Security Spokesman andSpecial Assistant to the President from January 2011 until March 2013.[13]
Vietor left the White House in March 2013, along with Obama's Director of SpeechwritingJon Favreau, to pursue a career in private sector consulting and screenwriting. Together, they founded the communications firm Fenway Strategies.[14]
In March 2016, Vietor became a regular co-host ofThe Ringer's political podcastKeepin' it 1600, along with Favreau and their fellow Obama administration alumniDan Pfeiffer andJon Lovett.[15]
Shortly after the2016 presidential election, Vietor, Lovett and Favreau decided to pursue podcasting and activism on a full-time basis. They founded their own company,Crooked Media, and launched a new podcast,Pod Save America.[16] In an interview withRecode′sKara Swisher, Vietor explained that "IfHillary [Clinton] had won, we probably would've kept doing this as a hobby... But when she lost, I think we all had this existential crisis, where it didn't feel right to wake up every day and obsess about politics and what's happening in the country, and then go to work doing something else."[17]
Along withBen Rhodes, who served as Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting under President Obama, Vietor also hosts a podcast covering global issues and policy making decisions calledPod Save the World. The podcast debuted on January 10, 2017.[18]
Leading up to the2022 FIFA World Cup inQatar, Vietor co-hosted withRoger Bennett (best known forMen in Blazers) the seven-part mini-seriesWorld Corrupt.[19]
In 2019, Vietor hosted a five-part miniseries about the Iowa caucuses calledPod Save America: On the Ground in Iowa. The miniseries was produced byPineapple Street Studios.[20]
In July 2018, Vietor married Hanna Koch inHealdsburg,California.[21] Vietor was previously engaged in 2009 to Katie McCormick-Lelyveld,Michelle Obama's chief spokeswoman.[22][23]
On January 27, 2022, Tommy and Hanna Vietor suffered from apregnancy loss, losingstillborn daughter, Margot, at 24 weeks.[24] On Instagram, Vietor wrote that "A knot in her umbilical robbed her of nutrients and us of our future together".[25] Nearly a year after the loss, Tommy and Hanna Vietor welcomed daughter Lisette Louise Vietor on December 6, 2022.[26] On May 7, 2024, Vietor and his wife welcomed a son, named James.
