Thursday evening during the taping of Obama Bros Podcast Pod Save AmericaJen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, implicitly doubled her efforts to make this happen President Biden’s insistencePeter Doocy (Fox News reporter) is “stupid son of a bitch,” arguing he works for a network that “provides questions that…might make anyone sound like” one.
Psaki also weighed in on her tenure at the Briefing Room podium, danced around questions of when she’ll MSNBC is your best option. And seeing as how the press corps have decided it’s not an issue (other than a few questions on April 1) to take a taxpayer-funded salary while negotiating with an outlet that’s supposed to hold her to account, she’s clearly felt empowered to say things like that.
Dan Pfeiffer (co-host) and a former colleague from Psaki brought up Doocy to the amusement of the audience. “Is he a stupid son of a bitch or does he just play a stupid son of a bitch on TV?”
Given the show’s audience and the voting demographics of Washington D.C., the crowd went wild in applause and laughter.
Psaki discovered a way to answer in the affirmative with a little help from his friends: “[H]e works for a network that provides people with questions that, nothing personal to any individual, including Peter Doocy, but might make anyone sound like a stupid son of a bitch.”
Psaki was able to change to a diplomatic response with a recounting of the January 24, between Biden, Doocy. “a nice Peter Doocy story” even if it’s not “popular in this crowd.”
Retelling how Biden called Doocy and him It was the best way to go when discussing itPsaki, Fox’s colleague Sean Hannity mocked Psaki’s notion of increasing crime that night.
Sean Hannity was actually what I saw to hear. My mind was, as you can see, very bending and hurting. I’m, like, there was, if you can imagine, it was like a flames and it was, like, crime, crime, crime, and Kamala Harris — and the Vice President’s, like, walking through the flames and crime — [AUDIENCE LAUGHS] — I don’t even know what was happening.
Psaki added it “was a moment of grace” by Doocy and one could say that without “lik[ing]Everything [he] says and does.”
Pfieffer responded in a hilarious gag by saying that the previous moments had been “why, before you were the world-famous press secretary, everyone called Jen Psaki the nicest person in Washington.”
Fox News stated Friday afternoon in a statement: “Doocy’s job is to elicit truth from power for the American public” and that not only are “his questions…his own,” but “he’s a terrific reporter and we are extremely proud of his work.”
Psaki falsely stated that Republicans spend their time elsewhere earlier in the podcast “doing horrible things and — and targeting transgender kids” and thus they’re people whom she doesn’t want “to be their friend.”
She then lied again, saying “a fair number of” Republicans “don’t want to talk about inflation, the economy, COVID, any of these issues because they have no plan and they have nothing to say” except “target transgender kids.”
The conversation later turned to when she would be leaving the White House and Psaki stuck to her talking points that she won’t “be there forever” even though it’s been “the best job I have ever had.”
Psaki went onto describe what the job’s been like and how she’s intended to instill “stability and calm and returning facts…and substance to the Briefing Room and following Trump and actually, in a crazy way, has been this huge honor…in stabilizing or…easing the nerves — healing the nerves of the public.”
She also gave advice for any future predecessors (click “expand”):
FAVREAU: [H]Hypothetically speaking, what advice would you offer your potential successor if you had to go?
PSAKI – Oh, that’s hypothetically. Okay, let me just say a couple things. One is that I mean, I came into this job thinking this, but I think it’s true even more now, we don’t have to underestimate the intelligence of the American people. The truth is that people aren’t stupid. We do not need to talk in a way that is, like, everybody’s in kindergarten. Pay attention. It is important to make everything accessible. That’s also true. I believe the best people who are communicators or spokespeople are ones who are also deeply knowledgeable about the issues they’re going to talk about. It’s not about reading talking points. This is what I would say to any successor: It’s not about reading talking points. It’s — you’re not, like, a weather girl — no offense to weather girls, they’re great, they tell me the weather — but, like, it’s — it’s about being able to answer the ninth question, right? And being able to talk about things and I — I would say a number of my amazing team members are here, but I’m a little relentless at times because I want to know how to be able to explain what a javelin, the weapon is, so that people can know what it is, right? Do you want to understand what COVID is? What is COVID? So, I would say that’s the second thing. The third things, which I have learned the hard way, and this is the truth — if anybody ever hasn’t been in the Briefing Room, come to the Briefing Room, whatever — it’s small and there are reporters staring at you the entire time, even when they’re not asking you questions. Sometimes, and actually, the ASL interpreter, like, the sign language — American Sign Language interpreter said this in a TV interview the other day, they’re very repetitive. They are repetitive. She asks the same question repeatedly. And you have to remember, you’re not at a dinner party, you’re not at a bar, right? So, you’re not just saying to your friends, “listen, I’ve answered your question nine times,” right? You have to continue to provide the same context and information because, in the age of social media and Twitter, otherwise, even the best meaning and well-meaning reporters will take one thing you said and make you seem like you’re —
UNIDENTIFIED COHOST: What’s the deal?
PSAKI: — Satan reincarnated.
PFEIFFER This type of [INAUDIBLE]This is not the place for it.
PSAKI: I know there’s a lot — we could talk about a — Twitter, all these things, but those would be my three pieces — and you know, the last thing I would say is the best thing you can do is know what the President’s thinking. I mean, that’s, ultimately, your job — is to speak on his behalf. It’s not on your behalf. You’re speaking for — on his behalf, what the administration thinks. If you don’t know, you don’t know and you say you don’t know and then you call up someone who knows and you’ll go give them the answer. And it doesn’t have to be a gotcha situation.
Click here to see the transcript and more information from Psaki from the April 15 episode (taped April 14).