Jen Psaki Lets Rob Lowe In On A White House Secret

For seven years, Rob Lowe portrayed the fictional presidential aide Sam Seaborn on the classic drama "The West Wing," which also Martin Sheen starred as the president of the United States. Recently, Lowe got to interview a prominent real-life presidential aide on his podcast "Literally!" — the White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki. During her time on the podcast, Psaki revealed details about herself and the current administration, that many listeners might not have known. 

Psaki first had to make one thing clear when she confessed to Lowe that she never watched "The West Wing" until 2012, even though it was on the air between 1999 to 2006. "I binged, you know, the entire thing while I was at this consulting firm," she told Lowe (via The Daily Mail). "I would be working on decks, which is like the worst thing I've ever done at a job. And I would watch episodes of 'The West Wing.' And in a crazy way, it really brought me back to come back to politics and I ended up coming back and doing the 2012 campaign working with then-President Obama on his re-election."

Psaki served in the Obama administration, both as a spokesperson for the State Department and later as his communications director before becoming President Joe Biden's press secretary in 2021. While speaking with Lowe, she also let him in on a White House secret. 

Thanks to COVID-19, President Joe Biden didn't travel much during the latter part of his campaign and the first year of his presidency, but that didn't mean he didn't have a five-star presidential look behind him. A White House room known as the South Court Auditorium became the venue for several administration events over the last year, including the place where the president got his COVID-19 booster shot.

According to The Washington Examiner, the room has been used for important public White House events since 2012, and speaking on Rob Lowe's "Literally!" podcast, Jen Psaki explained what the room is actually for and why it looks better than ever before. 

"It's just a place where you can do events, but it's really not that exciting, it's kind of just an auditorium," Psaki told Lowe (via The Daily Mail). "But because of COVID and because the president wasn't going to travel as much and not as many people were going to come here, he does a lot of events and actually meetings from there ... Where you can put up a bunch of people on screens and be able to see them and talk to them and engage with them in a way that you would do if he had 30 people in a meeting here."