When Jen Psaki joined NBC News after leaving her job as White House press secretary for President Joe Biden, she assured everyone that she was just going to be an impartial journalist and pundit.
“I am not going on television to be a mouthpiece,” she told The New York Times in an interview shortly after the decision, saying that her role would involve “debunking things, calling out BS.”
However, she did note to the Times that, in her new role, “I am not going to gratuitously attack” Joe Biden.
On Sunday, we discovered what Psaki considers a “gratuitous attack”: pretty much anything that painted Biden as the senescent blob of cognitively impaired carbon that he’s been reduced to.
During “Meet the Press,” Psaki said people in the White House were “absolutely banging your head against the wall at the way that the Thursday [special counsel] report has been covered,” given all of the bad news they could have been reporting about Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner for the nomination, Fox News reported.
Just so we’re clear about the report she’s talking about — in case your memory is as bad as Biden’s — on Thursday, it was announced that special counsel Robert Hur was recommending against charging Biden for willfully retaining classified documents from his time as vice president, in part because of his diminished mental capacity.
Hur’s report stated that “at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and that his inadequacies and lapses in memory were present as early as 2017, according to taped interviews with his ghost writer which showed the former veep struggling with his notes.
“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” Hur’s report read.
And remember, this guy is running for four more years as the leader of the free world. As “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker noted, according to an NBC News transcript, this is the second year in a row where Biden has skipped a pre-Super Bowl interview — something that used to be pro forma for whoever the occupant of the White House was before the big game.
Is Biden fit for office?
“I think it’s a close call if you’re sitting in the White House because frankly the media environment has massively changed since that Tim Russert clip of him hosting ‘Meet the Press’ from the Super Bowl,” Psaki said, referring to a clip of the former host of “Meet the Press” interviewing former quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Jack Kemp before the teams they used to play for — the Dallas Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills — met in the big game. “That just would never happen today. They know that.”
“Any smart reporter — which CBS has plenty — would have asked him about things like Gaza and events in the world, and people are just trying to have chicken wings at this point,” Psaki continued.
“I mean, if you’re sitting in the White House and on the campaign right now, you are absolutely banging your head against the wall at the way that the Thursday report has been covered, given all of the things that have happened this week, including … the fact that Donald Trump yesterday suggested that Vladimir Putin should have free rein in attacking NATO allies.
“And what do we see when we wake up this morning? Wall-to-wall coverage of whether a guy who’s four years older than his opponent is too old to be president.”
BREAKING: Jen Psaki just blasted Donald Trump’s remarks endangering NATO and blasted the media for their refusal to cover Trump’s treasonous rhetoric. Retweet to ensure the whole country sees. pic.twitter.com/tKYM6z8kyF
— Biden’s Wins (@BidensWins) February 11, 2024
Yes. And Donald Trump is up on numerous charges from a special counsel appointed in his case — mostly politically motivated, if you ask this partial observer — none of which were put off because Mr. Trump is “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Joe Biden is a high-mileage 81, Donald Trump an energetic 77. Face it: There’s a difference.
Also, let’s talk about Trump’s remarks, which have gotten plenty of coverage in the media: During an event in Conway, South Carolina, Trump — who has long urged that moves be made to ensure NATO allies start paying what they’re obligated to pay toward defense spending by the treaty’s guidelines — made one of the hyperbolic, offhand, half-serious remarks he’s known to make in situations like this.
“NATO was busted until I came along,” Trump said, according to CNN. “I said, ‘Everybody’s gonna pay.’ They said, ‘Well, if we don’t pay, are you still going to protect us?’ I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ They couldn’t believe the answer.”
And would he protect them if they didn’t pay what they’re obligated to pay under NATO guidelines? “No, I would not protect you,” Trump said he told one president of a NATO country. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”
Donald Trump has said he would ‘encourage’ Russia to attack any Nato member that fails to pay its bills. https://t.co/skp3jzdZXT pic.twitter.com/Z2dh30u400
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 11, 2024
Anyone halfway familiar with Donald Trump knows this is one of his many exaggerations used to drive home a point. Yes, NATO was broken; it’s a defense treaty organization, not a country club for democratic Western powers. Was it the smartest thing to say? Probably not.
Was it a “stunning admission he would not abide by the collective-defense clause at the heart of the alliance if re-elected,” as CNN said in its ostensibly straight-news piece? Uh, no.
Was it an independent special counsel who determined that the sitting president of the United States should not face charges in part because the lapses in his memory were so severe and pervasive that he might not be able to fully participate in his own defense and would come across as a “well-meaning” grandpa who should be in assisted living, not a courtroom or the White House? Also, no.
When Brendan Buck, former adviser to House speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner — neither of which are friends of Donald — noted that “part of the job to bring that to the front is the president’s job to bring that out and attack his opponent” and that “the president is not taking the opportunity on Super Bowl Sunday. He’s not taking really any opportunities,” Psaki again reverted to her days as White House press secretary instead of an independent correspondent.
“First of all, that’s not true. It’s not being covered,” Psaki responded. “He has traveled just as much as Donald Trump, as Barack Obama. It is hard to break through the cloud of Donald Trump in this media environment. That is true.”
No, it isn’t: “You know as well as anyone he’s done fewer interviews, fewer press conferences than his predecessors,” Buck responded. “We’re led to believe that there’s two Joe Bidens. There’s one behind closed doors who’s super sharp, who has not shown his age at all. And then when he steps out, we see him every time. It’s just not there.”
Yes, because this is what happens when Biden steps out after his bedtime, as he did on Thursday evening after the special counsel’s report was released in a vain attempt to prove he was in compos mentis:
While attempting to prove he remembers the date of his son Beau’s death, Joe Biden appears to forget where his son’s rosary was from:
“I wear since the day he died, every single day the rosary he got from Our Lady of…” pic.twitter.com/hiIa6YKiQ2
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 9, 2024
As Joe Biden was walking out of his press conference tonight, he decided to walk back in and proceeded to
1. Claim the Israeli response to Hamas has been over the top
2. Call Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, “the president of Mexico” pic.twitter.com/QFTClsICxA— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) February 9, 2024
Doocy: “How bad is your memory.”
Biden: “My memory is so bad I let you speak.” pic.twitter.com/Ds8R75HK9A
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 9, 2024
That last one was the most honest part of the whole night, if you ask me.
This is pure, unadulterated spin from a former press secretary still filling the role, except likely taking home an exponentially larger paycheck for it and doing it on network news. An independent special counsel literally just filed a report stating the sitting president of the United States is unfit to stand trial, and Psaki is going bonkers because they’re covering that unprecedented fact and not Donald Trump getting mouthy again?
Give me a break. If this is how Jen Psaki wishes to conduct herself on network television, she should circle back to the White House and ask for her old job, since she’s clearly “going on television to be a mouthpiece.” Unfortunately, she fits in all too well at MSNBC and NBC News. That’s part of the problem to begin with — and why we have a president who’s been propped up by the media, until even they couldn’t keep him upright.
