Curtains Down! Here’s Just a Few of the Top Moments From The Psaki Show

Friday saw the end of an age with Jen Psaki (White House Press Secretary) leaving the Biden administration. She had been involved in over 200 editions. Psaki’s ShowThe book is full of funny and poignant moments. Psaki’s role as chief spin officer, lying propagandist and spokesperson for President Biden was effective. This is because he has been unable to answer questions. 

Psaki was hired away by CNN It is set to take off to MSNBC and NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock, which itself It has been doneWith respect to ethical issues.

Fox’s Peter DoocyPsaki and Doocy Time became household names due to their numerous exchanges about everything, from horses to hot dogs to inflation to school sex. As we’ve coined it here at NewsBusters, Doocy Time was appointment viewing for the Fox correspondent’s uncanny ability to ask questions the liberal journalists around him weren’t asking and in a way that was brief, respectful, and tough.

Doocy wasn’t the only person who stood out during Psaki’s tenure. Psaki’s softball team included the usual suspects like Yamiche AlcindorAndrew Feinberg April RyanDoocy often enlisted journalists to help him with tough questions. New York Post’s Steven Nelson, Real Clear Politics’s Philip WegmannFormer Fox colleague Kristin FisherCurrent and past colleagues Jacqui Heinrich, Alexandria HoffEdward Lawrence (and his wife) Hillary Vaughn.

And yes, we even saw times when liberal network reporters like CBS’s Weijia JiangAnd Ed O’KeefePsaki has been tested.

Below represents the 15 moments from Psaki’s tenure, presented in chronological order.

1. February 2, 2021 — Not Very Good: Snarky Psaki Mocks Space Force Question, Snaps at Reporters

Psaki showed her condescending side on this particular day when Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove wanted to know “whether the President has made a decision on keeping or keeping the scope of the Space Force?”

Psaki committed a faux pas when she mocked it as “the plane of today” topic, which dated back to the first briefing and a question about former President Trump’s plans to redesign Air Force One.

Wingrove hit back, noting it’s not just any question because “it’s an entire branch” of the military. Psaki then engaged in some cleanup.

2. February 8, 2021 — BOOM: Doocy Battles Psaki Over ‘Green Jobs,’ Not Deporting Illegals for Violent Crimes

The first of seven entries highlighted from our year-end Best of Doocy package, the Fox correspondent drew Psaki’s ire for asking “when” and “where” laid off fossil fuel workers could “go for their green jobs” once the administration fully implemented its green agenda.

3. February 24, 2021 — Peter Doocy Schools Jen Psaki: So If This Isn’t ‘Kids in Cages,’ Is It ‘Kids in Containers?’

The first #BidenBorderCrisis reared its head only a month into the President’s tenure with Psaki falsely claiming the housing of illegal immigrants was being done with respect and not in cages. Doocy observed that it was false on that specific day.

4. March 10, 2021 — ‘It’s Not Funny’; FNC’s Doocy Fights WH Over Biden’s Immigration Crisis

With the administration still refusing to acknowledge reality, Doocy questioned whether they’ve preferred partnering with the teachers unions (to keep schools closed) over the angry and overtaxed Border Patrol and HHS unions. Psaki chuckled at his question, leading the affable Doocy’s face to turn red and show a brief moment of anger: “It’s not funny.”

5.  March 17, 2021 — JEEZ: WH’s Psaki Gets Personal in Battle with Fox’s Kristin Fisher Over Biden’s Border Crisis

Fisher was briefed by CNN before she left for the evil empire of CNN. This particular day, however, may have been her most difficult. Fisher was concerned about the growing border crisis and wanted to know if there were any limits on how many illegal immigrant kids allowed to reside in the United States.

Psaki snubbed Fisher and asked him to not answer. “Should we send some kids who are 10 back at a certain point? Is that what you’re asking me?”

Fisher kept her cool, noting she’s “not setting the policy here.”

6. June 30, 2021 — Doocy Hangs Tough, Continues to Battle Psaki Over Her Defund the Police Lies

One of Psaki’s worst lies took place over the summer when she tried to claim Republicans (and not Democrats) are the party supporting the defunding of police because they wouldn’t support Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus package.

Doocy pressed her to name a Republican who opposed the boondoggle “because they wanted to defund the police” and when Psaki stuck to her falsehoods, Doocy hammered home the point by citing statements from lead Republicans and support for defunding the police from Democrats.

7. July 2, 2021 — Holiday Fireworks: Doocy, Psaki Square Off Over Defund the Police, Hot Dog Tweet

Early 2021 was already the time when inflation took control of the country. In response, the White House issued one of the most absurd tweets you will ever see. It boasted that Fourth of July meals would now cost less than they had previously.

Doocy noticed the blowback and he took the uproar straight to Psaki, including the tweet’s thesis that celebrated a 16-cent drop an average cookout’s cost.

8. August 31, 2021 — Psaki Runs into Buzzsaw of WH Reporters After Biden Cuts and Runs After Speech

The collapse of Afghanistan served as a rare moment in which Psaki found out what it was like to be a Republican press secretary on a daily basis with a barrage of hard-hitting questions about the Biden administration’s failed pull-out that, in the end, costs 13 American lives and left dozens more injured.

On this particular day, ABC’s Stephanie Ramos asked whether the White House was “placing blame on Americans who could not get to the airport in time” And just how? “confident is the administration that Afghanistan isn’t already a safe haven for terrorists.”

To show how bad things were, American tax dollars were, for a few seconds, well spent as NPR’s Franco Ordoñez questioned whether “really fair…for [Biden]To say that [people] didn’t leave” Afghanistan “when they had the chance” given the fact that the situation on the ground wasn’t “safe and organized.”

9. September 8, 2021 — Doocy Throws Down With Psaki Over Leaving Americans Behind in Afghanistan

By this point, reporters had admirably been on Psaki’s case for weeks about Americans left behind in Afghanistan and this briefing was no exception with Doocy calling out the administration’s rhetorical shoulder shrugging as to what help they could provide.

Doocy also had this stinging, big picture question his colleagues wouldn’t ask: “There are now more terrorists wanted by the FBI in the new Afghan government than there are women. Does the President think that is a foreign policy success?”

10. September 22, 2021 — Thank Goodness: Doocy Stumps Psaki on the Border While Ryan Makes a Scene

With almost apocalyptic images from the border, #BidenBorderCrisis reached a peak in late summer/early falls. Doocy wanted to find out if Biden ever visited the border, given the gravity of the situation.

It led to this remarkable exchange (click “expand”):

DOOCY – Just one more. Have President Biden been to the Southern Border? 

PSAKI: Where is he now?

DOOCY: Yes.

PSAKI: I will have to get — look back in my history books and check the times — 

DOOCY: We — 

PSAKI: — he’s been to the Southern border. 

DOOCY: — we have been looking all morning and we cannot find any record of him visiting the border as President, Vice President, senator, or even as a concerned citizen. What could that possibly mean? 

PSAKI: You can see the date and time he was last seen. 

DOOCY: Did — did —

PSAKI: But — 

DOOCY: — did —

PSAKI: — tell me more about why you’re asking.

DOOCY: This is because he makes it clear that when disasters strike the country, like wildfires or hurricanes, he should go to the communities and get a firsthand view of their needs so that he has an informed POV on how to proceed with policymaking. Is that not what he should be doing? What’s the point of him going down to Del Rio, Texas? 

PSAKI, Well, Peter, the president relies heavily on his past experience to understand the current situation at the border. It could have been his work as Vice President to resolve root causes, or his efforts in the Senate in support of comprehensive immigration reform. These are steps that can be done one at a time and worked towards in a bipartisan manner, which is something we believe should be the case. He uses his experience to guide how he governs and how he tackles challenges. And he certainly doesn’t want to go any further than he has in the past four years, when the parents of the children were separated from their families. All of his experience and time as Vice President, Senate or vice president, have an impact on his view of issues.

11. December 6, 2021 — New York Post Reporter Draws Psaki’s Ire Over Daring to Ask About Hunter’s Laptop

Like Doocy Nelson, Nelson was fond of asking substantive questions about everything, from China to Hunter Biden and marijuana.

Nelson brought Hunter questions, coinciding the release of his colleague (and), to the room. Bulldog Award Winner – MRC Bulldog Award) Miranda Devine’s book The Laptop from Hell. As we wrote at the time, his questions about Hunter divesting from a Chinese investment fund, whether Hunter’s infamous laptop was real “and not Russian disinformation as you seemed to suggest,” but Psaki was disgusted with the topics.

Psaki even trashed Devine, saying she had “neither had the time nor interest in exploring or reading the book.”

12. February 11, 2022 — Jacqui Swagger: FNC’s Heinrich Battles Psaki, Sullivan Over Russian Invasion

Stepping up into a more consistent role in briefings, Heinrich dropped what Cable News Watch on Twitter has often called the Jaq Hammer in pressing Psaki on why Biden snapped at her and said debate over sanctioning Russia over what would become a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine was “stupid.”

Heinrich also called out what would become a failure of the world to stop the war, inquiring with Psaki about whether the administration would view it as “a black mark.”

13. February 18, 2022 — Friday Spice: Heinrich Draws Psaki’s Ire Over Probing Question About Russian Sanctions

Just days before Russian dictator Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade a sovereign Ukraine, Heinrich attempted to give the White House a gut check by wondering whether Team Biden’s strategy was “working.”

Psaki naturally said they were having success in standing up to Putin, so Heinrich stated things plainly: “You’re waiting for people to die before implementing them in that case.” Psaki was not amused, calling that “in no way a fair statement or accusation, I guess, if that’s what that is.”

14. March 9, 2022 — News Team, Assemble! Doocy and Lawrence Heat Gas Prices, Inflation

Lawrence was a great role model in the briefing. He forced Psaki into defending the fact that gasoline prices have risen every month since Biden became president. Given inflation and the conflict in Ukraine, it is difficult to see how the Administration can insist on Americans moving away from petrol-powered vehicles.

Doocy spoke up later, and he noticed a shift in tone about who was responsible for the rise of inflation. It had shifted from COVID-19 towards Putin.

15. April 4, 2022 — Kaboom: Doocy Asks Psaki If the WH Supports Kindergartners Learning Sex Ed

Nine days ago, Doocy put Psaki in the position of defending this newfound world of allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports as a way of “protect[ing] the dignity and identity of all Americans.”

Doocy also brought up Florida’s parental rights bill forbidding the teaching of topics concerning sex through the third grade and if the White House had a view on when it was appropriate for young children to be taught explicit material.

Psaki didn’t hesitate to lash out and show the administration’s support for such a heinous worldview, arguing those opposed to teaching sex to children in early elementary school are “propagating misinformed, hateful policies.”