The Briefing with Jen Psaki

Jen Psaki relays breaking news that Darline Graham, sister of former Senator Lindsey Graham, is projected to win the South Carolina Republican primary for Seante, overcoming some embarrassing gaffes and apparently benefitting from a strong endorsement from Donald Trump. Tim Miller, host of the Bulwark podcast, and Jim Messina, former Obama campaign manager, talk about the stakes of the South Carol...

Jen Psaki reports on the firing by Pete Hegseth's Pentagon of the editor-in-chief of the Stars and Stripes military newspaper, as well as one of its reporters, and considers the broader context of the Trump administration's attacks on the free press and Hegseth's particular battle against independent media. Erik Slavin, now former editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes, and Lara Korte, former Middle...

Jen Psaki takes a closer look at the bizarre devotion Natalie Harp shows to Donald Trump and her reported behavior that is not at all normal for a presidential aide. And the similarly abnormal role of Jennifer Hegseth, Pete Hegseth's wife, former Fox News producer and awkward shadow in the Trump administration. Chris Meagher, former chief Pentagon spokesman, and Ned Price, former CIA spokesman, ta...

Jen Psaki looks at the terrible performance of some of the candidates endorsed by Donald Trump, and the lack of help struggling Republicans candidates are getting from Trump, who may be too unpopular to help them even if he was inclined to do so. Maggie Haberman, White House correspondent for The New York Times and co-author of "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump," and D...

Jen Psaki looks at the collection of shameless and scandal-plagued MAGA candidates running in Florida Republican primary races that leave Trump-era Republican voters wanting for good choices. Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi and former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina talk with Jen Psaki about why the surprising results of the Florida primary elections point to strong Democratic momentum and a...

Jen Psaki considers Senator Jon Ossoff's charge that Donald Trump doesn't actually want to be president and would rather spend time with his sycophantic aides flying around on his fancy Qatari airplane, and posits that Trump's interest in only the most superficial aspects of the presidency makes his administration more akin to movie production than government. Senator Jon Ossoff talks with Jen Psa...

Donald Trump is trying to get around restrictions on the construction of his White House ballroom by arguing that the facility is a military necessity. But as Jen Psaki points out, it's hard to argue the national security purpose of covering everything in gold. Jen Psaki looks at how Donald Trump's incompetence and mismanagement of his war on Iran has not only wasted physical military resources bu...

Jen Psaki criticizes the priorities of outgoing Donald Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt for avoiding good faith engagement with real reporters' questions while elevating Trump sycophants. Senator Mark Kelly talks with Jen Psaki about Donald Trump making extreme and expensive demands for changes to aircraft carriers without having any idea what he's actually talking about.  Jen Psaki shares r...

Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and former White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby joins MS NOW’s Jen Psaki to discuss Donald Trump’s claims that the United States has “complete control” over the Strait of Hormuz and new reporting for The Washington Post that the CIA questioned the credibility of Israeli intelligence about an Iranian threat to Trump that ultimately led to Tr...

Jen Psaki sets the record straight on extraordinary Democratic enthusiasm in this year's midterm elections, as evidenced by exceptional turnout in the primaries so far, and points out that despite the media's obsession with intra-party competition, Democrats are actually very unified with candidates in even the most contentious primaries supporting each other once the contest is over. And meanwhil...

Jen Psaki and a panel of her MS NOW colleagues watch the primary election returns in Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Carolina and Connecticut and discuss the intra-party dynamics this primary season. To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection a...

Donald Trump appears to be distancing himself from his own Republican Party, perhaps hoping to avoid association with expected midterm losses, despite being responsible for the unpopularity Republicans are suffering for their association with him. Ben Wikler, former DNC chair, joins to discuss. How did a long-standing plan by the Department of the Interior to refurbish the Lincoln Memorial Reflect...

Donald Trump and his former cable news weekend co-host defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, are reportedly fighting over who is to blame for wasting U.S. military resources and depleting the U.S. weapons stockpile on Trump's inexplicable war on Iran. Hegseth reportedly blamed his deputy. Rep. Pat Ryan, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, joins to discuss Trump's foolhardy prosecution of th...

Donald Trump's disastrous time in office has left campaigning Republicans with very little to boast about to constituents back home. What they are left with instead is their familiar playbook of culture war scare tactics and divisive distortions to try to scare voters into supporting them. Senator Ted Cruz wasted no time to resort to absurd smears when asked about Democratic Senate candidate from...

Despite Donald Trump's endless talking about the vandalism he said was done to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Poll, U.S. attorney and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro was forced to drop the Justice Department's case against former Olympian David Hearn and admit that the problem with the pool's liner was the fault of the contactor Donald Trump selected.   The Wall Street Journal reports that aft...

Even as Americans are dealing with the fallout of Elon Musk's devastating cuts to the federal government when Donald Trump let him run amok, with new terrible consequences still coming to light on a regular basis, Musk is reportedly planning on trying to use his vast wealth to influence the midterm elections in favor of Republicans. Polls suggest his involvement may do Republicans more harm than g...

White voters without a college education have been a core component of Donald Trump's base and key to putting him in the White House. But a new poll from CNN shows that group now disapproves of Trump more than approves by 8 percentage points. One insight in the poll is that Americans by a wide margin thing Trump is focused on the wrong priorities. Jen Psaki takes a closer look. Jen Psaki reports o...

A mobile version of the Epstein files reading room in New York City, with millions of printed pages of notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's records, is set to go on tour, in part to highlight the mishandling of the files by Trump lawyer and attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche. Miles Taylor, former DHS chief of staff under Donald Trump, joins Jen Psaki to discuss the project. Senator John Corny...

Jen Pskai anchors special coverage of the White House Correspondents' Dinner and talks with a panel of guests about the relationship between Donald Trump and the media. Jen Psaki reviews The first stretch of Donald Trump's meandering address to attendees of the White House Correspondents' Dinner and talks with Terry Moran, former senior national correspondent for ABC News, and Eugene Daniels, MS N...

Jen Psaki points out that it wouldn't be unreasonable for someone to hear the news that Trump suffered another "subpoena fail" and ask, which one? Most recently, Trump has tried to bully the New York Times after he was embarrassed by reports that his new Qatari jet was not properly outfitted. But as everyone by now has learned, pushback works, and the Times pushed back and Trump is left looking fo...

Jen Psaki reports breaking news that Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee has referred former special counsel Jack Smith to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Ken Dilanian, MS NOW justice and intel correspondent, joins to explain why the accusation against Smith "doesn't pass the laugh test." Jen Psaki shows that Donald Trump's spin on his stalled war with Iran is not c...

Jen Psaki runs through a litany of Republican candidates this election cycle whose gross behavior, from being sexually inappropriate to allegations of domestic violence have not been meaningful enough to the party to force them out of the race the way Democrats have done with compromised candidate. Jim Messina, former Obama campaign manager, and Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha join to discuss wh...

Senator Mark Kelly talks with Jen Psaki about Donald Trump's deeply unpopular war against Iran and the effort the Trump administration is putting into covering up and spinning the truth even though the war and its effects are apparent to any American paying attention. Terry Moran, former ABC News anchor, talks with Jen about Donald Trump's war on the media and a new low in his intimidation tactics...

Jen Psaki looks at how Donald Trump's big speech on election security did not get much media attention, even from his most supporting outlets. And the documents he dramatically unveiled were either not new, had already been debunked, or completely contradicted the threat narrative he was trying to stoke. And of course, while some documents contradicted his conspiracy theories about China, others a...

Jen Psaki talks with Michael Feinberg, former assistant special agent in charge with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ken Dilanian, MS NOW justice and intelligence correspondent, and her fellow MS NOW host Chris Hayes about the facts and context behind Donald Trump's criticisms of U.S. election security.  David Rohde, MS NOW senior national security reporter, talks with Jen Psaki about the for...