Top Biden adviser Anita Dunn departs White House today

What they're saying: White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told me: "Anita is a backbone of Team Biden and her leadership was critical not just to the campaign but to our first 200 days in the White House."

• "She's someone all of us turn to as a sounding board and for guidance — and although she may wish we’d leave her in peace, that definitely won’t change!"

The big picture: Dunn, whose title is senior adviser, had said from the beginning that she was only coming into the West Wing for a few months. She now returns to SKDK, the powerful Washington firm she helped found.

• After a disappointing early start for Biden in his race for the 2020 Democratic nomination, Dunn was elevated and helped map a tough win in a crowded field.

Dunn was a senior campaign adviser for President Obama and his White House communications director, making her the rare top aide to two different winning presidents.

• She has long been one of the best-known operatives in Democratic politics, and played senior roles for Sens. Tom Daschle, Bill Bradley and Evan Bayh.

Hilary Rosen, SKDK's vice chair, told me: "Anita doesn't only give you lofty thematics. She's also very concrete about what needs to be done. She's therefore very comforting as a strategist, because she has certainty."

• A New York Times article last month said many in the White House "view her departure as a brief moment to breathe before she starts to plan the president’s re-election, which so far he has indicated he intends to wage."