Vedant Patel, the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the United States Department of State, made history by becoming the first Indian-American to hold the daily State Department news conference, which his colleagues praised for its professionalism and clarity.
With State Department Spokesperson Ned Price on vacation, the 33-year-old Patel of California took the briefing room in the State Department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters on Tuesday to represent the country before the media on foreign policy issues.
Patel’s briefing covered topics
Patel’s briefing covered topics ranging from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine to JCPOA negotiations and Liz Truss’s election as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
His next in-person briefing is scheduled for Wednesday. Vedant Patel made an impressive debut from the podium. “Kudos to” Vedant Patel on his podium debut, tweeted Matt Hill, senior Associate
Communications Director at the White House.
“Representing the United States on the world stage is a huge responsibility, and Vedant did it with the utmost professionalism and clear communication,” Hill said.
Pili Tobar, former White House deputy communications director said: “It’s so great to see Vedant Patel at the podium”.
“Congrats my friend on an amazing debut,” she tweeted.
About Vedant Patel
Patel, who was born in Gujarat, graduated from the University of California, Riverside, and previously worked as an Assistant Press Secretary and Spokesperson for President Biden in The White House.
Prior to that, he worked as a spokesperson for the Presidential Inaugural Committee and the Biden-Harris Transition.
He also worked in communications for the Biden campaign during both the primary and general elections.
Patel previously worked as the Communications Director for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and the Communications Director for Congressman Mike Honda.
Early this year, the then White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had described him as super talented.
“I often joke with him (Vedant Patel) that we give him easy assignments. We did not. It’s just because he’s super talented,” Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference early April.
“Vedant, I’ll say about him, he’s a beautiful writer. He’s a fast writer. I don’t know if that means he could be a wire reporter. I think he has a very promising career in government ahead of him,” she said and described his contributions as “amazing” for “everything he does to help me, help all of us, help the President every day”.
