
 
 File: White House press secretary Jay Carney (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) 
 
 President Obama announced Friday that Jay Carney will step down as White House press secretary after more than three years and be replaced by his deputy Josh Earnest, who worked on the Obama campaign in 2008. 
 
 Carney, 49, a former Time Magazine White House correspondent, joined the administration in late 2008 as spokesman for Vice President-elect Biden. He was promoted to Obama's chief spokesman in February 2011, replacing Robert Gibbs. 
 
 Earnest, 39, has been Carney's top deputy and regularly fills in for the press secretary during daily briefings at the White House and aboard Air Force One when the president leaves Washington. Carney said Earnest would travel with Obama to Europe next week, and the press secretary said he would formally leave his job in mid-June. 
 
 Carney cited spending time with his wife, television journalist Claire Shipman, and children as a reason for his departure, but he did not disclose future career plans. Obama made the surprise announcement in the briefing room, cutting off Carney during an answer to a question about Ukraine. 
 
 At Friday's White House news briefing, President Obama joined press secretary Jay Carney to announce that Carney would be leaving his post, to be replaced by deputy press secretary Josh Earnest. (Associated Press) 
 
 "Jay has become one of my closest friends and is a great press secretary and a great adviser," Obama said. "He's got good judgement, he has good temperament and he's got a good heart. And I'm going to miss him a lot. I will continue to rely on him as a friend, an adviser after he leaves to spend as much of his summer as he can with his kids before he decides what's next for him." 
 
 Carney developed a reputation among his former peers as a disciplined and even-tempered spokesman who rarely disclosed news by mistake or made mis-statements that were damaging to the White House. Carney sparred with reporters regularly, as they pressed him on camera to respond to world crises, domestic politics and White House scandals. 
 
 Josh Earnest speaks during the April 4 daily news briefing at the White House . (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) 
 
 Obama recalled Earnest's work on his 2008 campaign, noting that he served as communications director in Iowa. "In that role, you'd find him spending an extra hour or two helping young staffers make phone calls or knock on doors," the president said. "There was no task that was too small, no detail too unimportant for Josh to attend to." 
 
 Earnest is well regarded among White House reporters, and he was long viewed as a likely Carney replacement. Some reporters had speculated last year that Obama might someday replace Carney with Jen Psaki, a former White House deputy communications director and Obama's 2012 campaign spokeswoman who now serves as the State Department spokeswoman. Obama has not had a woman serve in the role of top spokesperson at the White House, although Jennifer Palmieri is the communications director, a top behind-the-scenes position in the press shop. 
 
 "More often than not people say to me, 'You have the hardest job or you have one of the hardest jobs,'" Carney said. "And I'm not saying it's easy every day, but I love it. It's an important interaction that takes place here. It's not always pretty. It could certainly be better. But to be a part of it is an honor and a joy for me. So no matter how tough the briefing is, I walk out of here having been glad to stand here." 
 
 Brendan Buck, former spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boeher (R-Ohio), often sparred with the press secretary, but Friday he wrote on Twitter that Carney had "a great run. Incredibly tough job, and rarely made a misstep." 
 
 RELATED: The Departed -- Carney, Shinseki latest to leave administration ||||| Can we officially say that the crew of Morning Joe has a not-so-great relationship with Jay Carney? Because this morning, they began tearing into the White House spox for what they dubbed an “insulting” exchange with ABC’s Jonathan Karl at yesterday’s press briefing. (FYI, Carney accused Karl of engaging in tricky “wordplay” in response to Karl asking a simple yes or no question.) 
 
 “I don’t understand why Jay always has to result to insulting,” Joe Scarborough complained after watching the exchange. “It always seems to be personal with Jay Carney. I don’t understand why that — does he go back and do people in the West Wing give him a high five? I don’t understand it.” 
 
 Axe, grinding. 
 
 UPDATE — 2:16 p.m. ET: So, um… Jay Carney is resigning, by the way. 
 
 Watch below via MSNBC: 
 
 [Image via screenshot] 
 
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 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance Friday to announce that his chief spokesman Jay Carney is leaving his post behind the podium. 
 
 Obama called Carney one of his closest advisers and friends at the White House in remarks to the press in the White House briefing room. 
 
 "In April, Jay came to me in the Oval Office and said that he was thinking of moving on, and I was not thrilled, to say the least," he said. "But Jay has had to wrestle with this decision for quite some time." 
 
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 "I will continue to rely on him as a friend and an adviser after he leaves to spend as much of his summer as he can with his kids before he decides what's next for him," he added. "Whatever it is, I know he's going to be outstanding at it." 
 
 Carney, who has served as press secretary for over three years, called holding the job "an honor and a joy for me." 
 
 Obama announced that communications deputy Josh Earnest will take over the job as the president's press secretary. 
 
 "Today the flak jacket is officially passed to a new generation," he said of Earnest.
– President Obama had a second high-profile departure to announce today: Press secretary Jay Carney is resigning, reports the Washington Post. Obama called Carney one of his closest friends and advisers, notes NBC News. "Today the flak jacket is officially passed to a new generation," he said, referring to Carney's replacement: deputy press secretary Josh Earnest. "I will continue to rely on him as a friend and an adviser after he leaves to spend as much of his summer as he can with his kids before he decides what's next for him," said Obama. "Whatever it is, I know he's going to be outstanding at it." (We're guessing the folks at Morning Joe won't be sorry to see Carney go, with Mediaite noting that they again criticized him this morning for "insulting" reporters at his daily briefings.)