Biden hires new communications director

Vice President Biden has selected Kate Bedingfield, a top film industry spokeswoman who worked on John Edwards’s 2008 presidential campaign, as his new communications director.

{mosads}”She will be a key adviser to me, a terrific asset to our office, and an important member of the entire White House organization,” Biden said in a statement.

Biden’s pick comes as he is seriously considering running for president in 2016. On Saturday, Biden took a last-minute trip to Washington to meet with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a liberal icon whose endorsement is highly sought by Democratic presidential contenders.

But as a member of the White House staff, Bedingfield faces limits on campaign activities, and her role is designed to cover Biden’s official duties as vice president.

Bedingfield comes to the vice president’s office from the Motion Picture Association of America, where she had served as vice president of corporate communications since 2013.

Prior to that, she worked in the White House press shop as associate communications director. In 2008, she served as top spokeswoman for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s (D-N.H.) campaign and was Edwards’s New Hampshire communications director.

Bedingfield replaces Shailagh Murray, a former Washington Post reporter who became a senior adviser to President Obama in March. She starts her new job Monday.