Circling Back: Psaki Sits for Exit Interview with FNC’s Kurtz on Hiding Biden, MSNBC Chatter

Sunday on the Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzzJen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, joined Howard Kurtz as an exit interview. She spoke about media access to President Biden and rumors regarding her move to MSNBC. Twitter is a liberal echo chamber.

Kurtz presented the facts that Biden’s questions are not always available to reporters, and ended the first block.

I’ll circle back to answer the message question, in a new phrase. Now I know your standard answer is that Biden takes lots and lots of questions after events, and let’s just agree to disagree that that’s a good level of media access. With the President holding so few news conferences and doing very rarely sit-down interviews, isn’t he surrendering a key part of the bully pulpit?

Psaki insisted he “speaks to the American people nearly every day, sometimes twice a day,” But research the RNC showedBiden 19, out of the 30 April days, avoided the media.

Elle stated that President Obama’s real objective was to be a “realist”. “speaking to the public”While also “engaging in and valuing a free press…and speaking out about how we should protect the media.”

Kurtz pushed back by citing Biden’s affinity for hearing himself talk, lamenting that, instead of being constantly out in front of the public, the void “is being filled by Republicans, activists, pundits, bloviators, and doesn’t about that mean he’s often reacting to the news and not driving the news cycle.”

Psaki said she and her team “can’t determine what the media decides to cover, of course, that’s not our role, we’re not in China and Russia here, but…the President can make news.”

Kurtz continued, but he stated clearly that “a sustained questioning from a single journalist with follow-ups is not only better for our profession, we always want more access, as you know[.]”

Kurtz mentioned the White House Correspondents Dinner, (WHCD), and her impressions of it before the break. Daily Show host Trevor Noah quipping that, per Kurtz’s summation, her job “is to make the Biden administration look good at all costs and as a pundit your job will be the same.”

Psaki dodged the question by claiming she’d already answered “nothing to say about what I’m going to do in the future, aside from it’s now been announced that I will be departing the White House” And she “couldn’t have done my job…if [the administration] didn’t value the role of the press and the media.”

Kurtz continued on that after the break and pressed on her long-rumored departure and MSNBC hiring and whether the stories affected her (click “expand”):

KURTZ: I know you can’t discuss your next job for ethical reasons, but it’s been widely reported, you got a lot of criticism over possible conflicts during this period. Both of these things bothered you.

PSAKI: Of course, because I’m a human being. What I do know, however is that I strive to live up to an ethical standard every day. I took steps and have taken steps, as I’ve had any discussions with any future employer, that go over and above any requirements by government, recusing myself of any discussions as well, and I’m proud of that. And I think and hope, and this is very public in a job like mine —

KURTZ: Yes.

PSAKI: — people judge me by how I engage and interact with reporters. And I think it has been clear, I’ve treated everybody the same from the beginning, and that has been a point of pride for me.

Kurtz turned to her approach in the Briefing Room, wondering if she’s “deliberately [tried] to lower the temperature” given what was included in that The infamous PoliticoStory ahead of the WHCD featuring journalists boast of how “boring” the Biden beat has been to the point that showing feistiness “make[s] you look like an asshole.”

Psaki went back to what she told her friends on Pod Save America, which was that she’s tried to return “credibility…to the job, of showing respect, even people who disagree with us, with him, with the policies of the administration, and, yes, some of that is taking the temperature down in the room”Also, make sure you bite your tongue and not lash out.

Following a section on how Twitter’s a white, liberal bubble, Kurtz wrapped by asking Psaki to reflect on the job and why she’s leaving (click “expand”):

KURTZ: Recently, you said Twitter was very white, liberal and coastal. And you’re right.

PSAKI: That’s a fact, yes.

KURTZ – It distorts real life for all, including journalists.

PSAKI: Yes.

(….)

KURTZ: Now, White House press secretary, originally you said you didn’t want the job, but you took it after the campaign, it’s made you something of a celebrity. Given your fame as a spokesperson for the president of the United States, is it difficult to quit this job?

PSAKI: I mean, of course it’s hard. This is greatest job I’ve ever had, maybe the greatest job I ever have, I don’t know. And it has surpassed my expectations in so many ways in that I’ve learned something new every single day. A lot of that has to do with the policy people I work with and the experts, but a lot of it also has to do with the journalists I interact with and the way they ask questions and what they’re asking about.

KURTZ: So, you’re leaving because?

PSAKI: I’m leaving because I have a 4-year-old and a 6-year-olds. My husband and they are my most important friends. And I always knew that having — having worked in the White House before that this was not a job I could do forever. No matter your situation, it is an honor to be able to work there. But I don’t want to miss things with my kids, and I don’t want to miss moments or soccer practices or ballet recitals or anything.

Click here to view the FNC transcripts from May 8th.