The White House press office has long been a trusted path to a career in television news. There are currently five hosts who have previously worked there, and President Biden’s former press secretary Jen Psaki joins their ranks Sunday when her weekly hour-long show debuts on MSNBC at 9 a.m. Pacific.
Psaki, who previously worked for former President Obama and John Kerry when they served as Secretary of State, has logged enough on-camera hours to be a familiar face to viewers. But “Inside With Jen Psaki” will still be a kind of introduction.
“She really speaks for herself for the first time in her career,” said Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC’s senior vice president of content strategy. “It will be a great opportunity for the audience to get to know Jen.”
“Inside With Jen Psaki” will go beyond the traditional television platform. It will be available to stream on Peacock after running on MSNBC, along with a second edition that will run exclusively on the service. Psaki will also take over MSNBC’s main Saturday bulletin and later this year she will have a sideshow on YouTube.
In a recent interview, the 44-year-old Psaki shared some thoughts on his career and his next phase.
MSNBC caters to a politically progressive audience. But many people who still sit in front of the television seek a more direct discussion of the news. Are you going to think of it as an opinion show or a more mediocre news show?
I think about it more because I’m going to choose option C, which is an informed program. I have worked for Democratic politicians, including two Democratic presidents, for 20 years. I am not going to pretend that I have not worked on those campaigns and that I did not sit in the situation room or on the campaign bus. That wouldn’t be very helpful to viewers. I’m also not going to pretend that I think I haven’t long supported a woman’s right to choose, or people’s ability to marry who they want, or be who they want, because that wouldn’t be authentic.
But I also think that at times we have strayed from what I would consider to be healthy discussions and debates on a variety of topics. And I will certainly invite a variety of Republicans on the show to have a chat with them. If they say something that is false or inaccurate, I will report it. But I also think my experience in government is about having those discussions as a healthy part of the debate.
What was home politics like in Stamford, Connecticut, where you grew up?
I grew up in sort of a divided household, where my mother voted for all Democrats, no matter who they were. My dad was a Northeastern Republican, not on social issues, more on tax issues. He is a born-again progressive. He’s 80 now, so in his late 50’s or early 60’s, he became a Democrat. But growing up, one of my earliest political memories was when my dad said to my mom, “You’re the only person in the country who voted for Walter Mondale.” And I was like 6 or 5 at the time, and I was like, “Mom, man, are you the only person?”
In his previous job, he was known for being a calm and constant presence in the White House briefing room. Is there something in your habits that keeps you like this? Is it yoga? Diet? Jesus Christ?
My sister is an ordained Unitarian minister, so I wish I could say that it was my connection to my faith that I need to work on more. But I would say that when people go crazy and there is total chaos around me, my instinctive reaction is to calm down, because I don’t want to be immersed in chaos.
There are many universities and colleges in DC So if I were to meet college students on the street, they would ask me, “What are you thinking in your mind when so-and-so asks you a crazy question?” And I said: “Sometimes I think that I am an orderly in a mental hospital. And if I speak slowly and calmly, everyone will calm down.” Sometimes I have a bit of an Irish temper, so that comes out. But I also think about that job, that one of the first conversations I had with the president was about the need to restore calm and stability.
Jen Psaki speaks during a White House press conference in 2021.
(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)
A friend of yours, a seasoned veteran of the media business, told me that you might be too “normal” to be on TV. She said that you are not needy. She is not a self promoter. Not self-absorbed. Is right?
Well, that’s a great compliment, and my mom, if she reads this story, which she will, would like the most of everything in there. My mother is a family therapist who grew up in Queens, NY, and she always says that everything originates in Queens. She says, “That’s where you get your courage and your character,” even though I didn’t grow up there. It didn’t matter what job I had, if she ever saw me getting too fat for my britches, or talking bad about people, or not treating people with value and respect, that’s what would disappoint her the most. She wouldn’t care if I had a great job. I always think: “What would my mother think?” about whatever’s going on, and that’s a big reason for me.
Do you think President Biden was punished for not being entertaining enough as President? Did Donald Trump distort the public’s perception of what a president’s performance skills should be?
There were people, never on record, saying, “It’s boring,” or “Ugh, so much politics, paper, and informational calls.” And my response to that was always a bit like, “Well, if you’re not interested in white papers and background calls and the policies that will affect people’s lives, you may need to cover something different.” But the truth is that the vast majority of White House reporters loved the return to politics.
your exchanges with Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy they were legendary. Are you still in touch?
I really like Peter. We had a good relationship. We had a lot of fun back and forth, and sometimes heated back and forth in the meeting room. That is healthy in a democracy. Peter and I also had many conversations in my office on a variety of topics. I always found him professional.
Doocy regularly speaks with White House press secretary Jen Psaki during briefings.
(FoxNews)
Well, what are your thoughts on what we’ve seen on Fox News over the past few weeks on court papers from Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against the net? There was a lot of talk internally about helping Republican candidates. Will it affect how Democrats deal with Fox News in the future?
I don’t think there is an easy answer. The challenge, at least for this moment, is that it doesn’t hurt so much (Fox News). If the Democrats don’t appear on their air, what do they care? That’s not a big part of their business model, as far as I know. At the same time, Fox has a large audience, including several Democrats. I appeared on “Fox News Sunday” more than any other Sunday show when I was in the White House as press secretary because I felt it was important to have a voice there. There are people like Pete Buttigieg and certainly others who were quite effective at Fox. And I don’t know if saying nobody should do that anymore is exactly the right thing to do. You are giving up a huge landscape.
So who came up with the name of the show? And what does it tell the viewer?
It was a group effort. He wanted me to say something beyond my name about what we were trying to do. I think the hope is that what we’re going to do is bring people into the room by having people that I know in government, or have met in the past, to really talk and dig into what the issues are, to bring the people inside the lives of politicians and the people you see in public and show a different side. That’s what people will take away from the show.
Jen Psaki speaking to the daily press at the White House on Friday, July 16, 2021.
(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)
What do you bring to this role that we don’t already know about you?
A huge curiosity about a lot of things going on in the world, whether it’s what the hell is going on in China, how exactly is the war in Ukraine going to end, how are all these Senate races going to end, who’s going to be the Republican nominee? And even things that people don’t know about me. I’m a mom, obviously. I am also obsessed with the Olympics. I am a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals. So I’m curious about a million things.
The best advice I’ve ever received has been to turn it into a conversation. And also the second part, which is perhaps even more important, is listening to what people are saying and responding to that and not getting so caught up in what your plan for the show is that you don’t take the conversation to the most interesting place. .
You are a fan of the Bengals. I feel like a Joe Burrow reservation may be in the offing.
My God, that’s the dream. My in-laws said that if he ever came on this show, they would all come to the interview, so I said okay.
Has it already been discussed?
Yes, you have an open invitation to come. Or we will come to him.
