The Briefing with Jen Psaki

October 23, 2026; 9pm: Jen breaks down the Justice Department’s Alaska election lawsuit with Mark Elias, the fallout from Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad with Josh Turek, and Kansas Republicans crossing party lines against Roger Marshall with Bill Graves. The episode highlights how late-stage election fights, candidate controversies, and bipartisan defections are shaping key Senate and governor races....

October 22, 2026; 9pm: This episode examines Trump-era corruption, attacks on women seeking power, election threats, and the midterm fight in Mississippi. Guests Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Sarah Longwell, and Scott Colom discuss misogyny, voter backlash, voting rights, and how Democrats can connect corruption to everyday costs. To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS...

October 21, 2026; 9pm: Jen examines Republican closing messages on Vladimir Putin, Amy Acton, Camp Lejeune veterans, and alleged Trump corruption, with guests Wes Moore, Mitch Landrieu, and Miles Taylor. The key takeaway is that corruption and political cruelty are defining the final stretch before the midterm elections. To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW...

October 20, 2026; 9pm: Jen covers rising Democratic turnout and fundraising, Republican attack politics, alleged Trump pardon influence, and Elon Musk’s role in Texas politics. Guests Senator Raphael Warnock, Liz Oyer, Mary Peltola, and Rep. Greg Casar weigh in on early voting, corruption, Alaska’s Senate race, and the midterm stakes. To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign...

October 16, 2026; 9pm: Michael Steele examines Trump White House turmoil after Katie Zachariah’s short-lived press secretary role, the politics of corruption and campaign money, and questions over Starshield access for Ukraine. Guests George Conway, Chuck Rocha, Rob Flaherty, Mark Hertling, and Brian Poindexter connect the stories to midterm stakes and voter backlash. To listen to this show and ot...

October 15, 2026 - Jen Psaki covers breaking news of a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, where three children, a teacher, and the suspected shooter were killed. Michael Feinburg, former FBI special agent; Marc Santia, MS NOW investigative reporter; and Christopher O’Leary, former FBI counterterrorism official, join Jen to discuss the shooting and the investigation. State S...

October 14, 2026 - Jen Psaki shares pieces of Donald Trump's speech at a rally in Arizona and makes the case that the media should not ignore the bizarre things he says and should ask the candidates who support him to explicitly endorse his statements.   Senator Mark Kelly joins to discuss Donald Trump's fitness to hold office. Rep. Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committ...

October 13, 2026 - Jen Psaki reacts to Katie Zacharia's first day as Donald Trump's press secretary, the mockery she made of the press briefing, and Donald Trump's efforts to normalize a compliant press. Amb. Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, and Terry Moran, former senior national correspondent for ABC News discuss Zacharia's first day and Trump's war on the press. Speaker...

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the politics. With a few weeks left until the midterms, MS NOW anchors and fans gathered in Texas for a day of conversation and community. Now, we’re bringing the fun to you directly. Listen to a compilation special from Together In Texas: We the People 2026, featuring talks with top newsmakers and some of your favorite hosts, such as Rachel Maddow, Lawrenc...

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the politics. With a few weeks left until the midterms, MS NOW anchors and fans gathered in Texas for a day of conversation and community. Now, we’re bringing the fun to you directly. Listen to a compilation special from Together In Texas: We the People 2026, featuring talks with top newsmakers and some of your favorite hosts, such as Rachel Maddow, Lawrenc...

October 9, 2026 - Jen Psaki reports on Donald Trump giving Russian President Vladimir Putin another big boost by dropping sanctions to allow Russia to move more diesel fuel to market and suggested the U.S. would be among the buyers. Trump even thanked Putin even though the diesel release is not expected to be enough to change global diesel prices, but will yield billions for Russia to spend on its...

October 8, 2026 - Jen Psaki explains that while a popular president may be able to carry a lackluster candidate with the help of local partisanship, the combination of Donald Trump's abysmal public approval and deeply flawed Republican candidates appears to not only be tipping races toward Democrats, but also changing the minds of voters who might have previously voted Republican by reflex. Democr...

October 7, 2026 - Jen Psaki relays new reporting from the Wall Street Journal that Kimberly Guilfoyle, former Fox News host, former Donald Trump Jr. fiance, and current U.S. ambassador to Greece, struggled with debt, begged a Trump donor for $100,000 to pay off her credit card bill, and offered to use her influence in the Trump administration to do favors for the donor ahead of her confirmation he...

October 6, 2026 - Jen Psaski interviews Troy Jackson, Democratic candidate for Senate from Maine, fresh from his debate with his Republican opponent, Susan Collins, about the tight race, the political mood in Maine, and the liability Donald Trump has become for Republican candidates. Jen Psaki talks with Jim Messina, campaign manager for Barack Obama 2012, Shawna Thomas, MS NOW political director,...

When Donald Trump boasts that a new steel plant is already under construction in Iowa, who better to check the veracity of that claim than the people in Iowa who live where the plant is supposedly being built? Jen Psaki shares examples of Donald Trump making promises on the campaign trail that have no basis in reality as far as the people most closely connected to the news can tell. Former Senator...

Jen Psaki explains that Donald Trump is hosting another dinner in support of his cryptocurrency meme coin, ignoring the fact that his own followers took massive losses investing in the coin, with many openly disparaging him for it. Rep. Jamie Raskin joins to discuss the myriad ways the Trump administration operates outside of ethical and even legal bounds, and the investigations Democrats are like...

September 30, 2026 - Despite the increasingly dangerous global security environment, made even more dangerous by Donald Trump's inexplicable war on Iran and Pete Hegseth's mismanagement of it, Hegseth has devoted his attention to prioritizing a cartoonish image of what it means to be an American servicemember. Michael Steele discusses with veterans Rep. Pat Ryan and Rep. Chris Deluzio. Former cong...

Jen Psaki shares the events at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in which Republican Senator Eric Schmitt thought he had caught former special counsel Jack Smith in a perjury gotcha only to be called out for his spectacular failure by Senator Amy Klobuchar who pointed out that Schmitt's blind spot for women's sports led him into what Psaki describes as a "slow-moving self-implosion" leav...

September 25, 2026 - Jen Psaki holds Donald Trump's boasts about helping Republican candidates on the campaign trail up against the reality that he is being sent to safely Republican districts where he not only won't face pushback from angry American voters, but he won't cause any damage with his politically toxic poll numbers. Pastor Adam Hamilton, Democratic candidate for Senate from Kansas talk...

September 24, 2026 - As Donald Trump ban on members of the media whose coverage he doesn't like continues to play out in court, Jen Psaki points out that the media model Trump seems to most want to emulate is that of the dictators he admires. Peter Alexander, chief national reporter for MS NOW, and Jim Acosta, former chief White House correspondent for CNN, discuss the importance of news organizat...

September 23, 2026 - Jen Psaki points out that the last time Donald Trump lost his cool and tried to ban a member of the news media from the White House he had just been clobbered by a blue wave midterm and his political power was at a nadir. Polling shows him to be even worse off now than he was then. Jim Acosta, former chief White House correspondent for CNN who successfully challenged being ban...

While Donald Trump banning news organizations from the White House because he doesn't like their coverage is objectively inexcusable in the United States of America, Republicans are nonetheless trying their hardest to make excuses for Trump. Jen Psaki dismantles them with facts and context. Jen Psaki shows the many Republican candidates campaigning for the coming midterm elections with a suspiciou...

Jen Psaki reviews the history of American presidents clashing with members of the press but still respecting their First Amendment role, and reports on Donald Trump's declaration that he is banning MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House. Trump previously lost a legal challenge to banning a member of the press, and Psaki notes that Trump's war on the free press hasn't prevented the press fro...

Jen Psaki looks at Republican candidates who have purged their campaign materials of mentions of Donald Trump or have avoided events with Trump or Trump officials. Some candidates are even speaking out in defiance of Trump despite having previously been supportive. But Trump is too unpopular now to admit that support. Even as Republicans insist that technology companies can police themselves to en...

Jen Psaki explains how articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth, filed by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, put House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans in an awkward position so he ended the session a day early to avoid having to deal with it. This comes as new reports show that the Trump administration is not being forthcoming about the damage Iran is inflicting on U.S. assets. Senator...