“Dan has been beside me on every step of this incredible journey, starting with those earliest days of the campaign in 2007,” Obama said in a statement on Wednesday. “And through it all, he’s been smart, steady, tireless and true to the values we started with. Like everyone else in the White House, I’ve benefited from his political savvy and his advocacy for working people. He’s a good man and a good friend, and I’m going to miss having him just down the hall from me.”
An official at the White House said Pfeiffer, who’d been contemplating leaving the administration for a “long time,” told Obama the day after this year’s State of the Union address that he’d made his decision to depart.
