Spox Jen Psaki msnbc

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daily correction of BS?

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MS NOW anchor Jen Psaki pulled no punches at the disreputable slate of Republicans facing voters Tuesday night— some of them already toppled by their own voters as primaries extended into the night.

“Former Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell … is important because especially when you look at the Republican races we are watching tonight,’ said Psaki on her Wednesday The Briefing with Jen Psaki show. “Swalwell, as we all know, faced massive pressure to resign from his seat amid a flurry of sexual assault allegations. And even though Swalwell denied those allegations, officials … consider[ed] these allegations serious enough to universally push to show Swalwell the exit. Now, compare that to how it has gone for Republican congressman Cory Mills.”

Mills was running for reelection in Florida’s 7th Congressional district Wednesday, despite the fact that he is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee, investigated for allegations that he assaulted a former girlfriend and allegations of stolen valor for obtaining a bronze star on false pretenses, as well as allegations of financial misconduct.

“Unlike Swalwell, Mills has not been pressured to resign his seat to drop out of the race. None of that. President Trump even endorsed him in February after most of those allegations, I would note, were already public,” said Psaki.

But Trump's endorsement did nothing to help the scandal plagued Mills as the Associated Press projected Mills losing to Republican challenger, Ryan Elijah.

“It's really important to remember that it was not the Republican Party that did that. It wasn't Republican leadership. It wasn't Donald Trump — certainly not. It wasn't [House Speaker] Mike Johnson, wasn't any of them. It was the voters.”

But the Mills race wasn’t the wildest in Florida, said Psaki, referring to the state's 19th congressional district, where 10 Trump loyalists were fighting for the GOP primary Wednesday night.

“Two of them are convicted felons -- I am not making that detail up. And guess what? Both of them were pardoned by President Trump,” said Psaki, referring to John Strand, a J-6 rioter who was photographed pushing past Capitol Police officers to enter the capitol and disrupt the 2020 election. Strand later texted, “we stormed the capitol. It was insane.”

“Thank God the other convicted felon who was pardoned by Trump running in Florida’s 19th district is former New York congressman Chris Collins. And you may remember this guy, because he resigned from Congress in 2019 and pleaded guilty to insider trading and lying to the FBI,” Psaki said.

Trump pardoned Collins a year later, giving the former legislator the opportunity to sell his cozy relationship with Trump to voters.

But then there’s former North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn, who was also was running in Florida’s 19th district, even as polling showed him behind Wednesday night.

“A few years ago, Cawthorn faced his own allegations of sexually aggressive behavior from multiple women. Cawthorn denied those allegations, but ended up losing his seat to none other than Chuck Edwards, who just ended his own campaign for Congress this month after he faced his own sexual harassment allegations, which he also denied,” said Psaki.

“What a Grand Old Party,” said Psaki. “Indeed, you cannot make this up.”

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an fair 3 25

At a time when the Democratic Party’s opposition to the ongoing right-wing authoritarian assault on US government is failing miserably (FAIR.org, 2/27/25), MSNBC’s recent purge means it is all the more unlikely that the cable news network will have any role in holding Democrats’ feet to the fire.

The news channel has nixed or demoted their most progressive anchors, all of whom are people of color. These are the hosts who have drawn the most ire from Donald Trump’s online warriors, according to Dave Zirin of The Nation (2/28/25). They are also some of the few who were willing to air the network’s rare criticism of Israel. In their stead, MSNBC has elevated Democratic Party apparatchiks and a center-right never-Trumper. This rightward shift reflects the reality that the channel’s corporate ownership has never cared for its left-of-center brand.

The network’s overhaul, led by its new president Rebecca Kutler, cancels Joy Reid’s ReidOut, Alex Wagner’s nighttime spot and Ayman Mohyeldin’s weekend evening show, with Reid fired, Wagner demoted and Mohyeldin’s voice diluted into a co-anchor position.

The ReidOut is getting replaced by a panel show consisting of Symone Sanders-Townsend, the former Biden and Harris advisor; Alicia Menendez, the daughter of disgraced ex-Sen. Bob Menendez; and Michael Steele, the former Republican National Committee chairperson, now a Democrat whose politics symbolize the Democratic Party’s disastrous fetish for centrist triangulation. Wagner’s 9 pm slot will now be anchored by Jen Psaki, another Biden alum.

As an indication of just how disruptive Kutler’s new vision for MSNBC is, even Rachel Maddow—the network’s biggest star with the most popular show—is getting a staff downsizing. The move seemed almost retaliatory, as it came after Maddow aired her grievances during one of her nightly shows (2/24/25). “Personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let [Reid] walk out the door,” Maddow said. “It is not my call and I understand that, but that’s what I think.” She added:

It is also unnerving to see that, on a network where we’ve got two, count ’em, two non-white hosts in primetime, both of our non-white hosts in prime time are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend. And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible, and I do not defend it.

Bucking the trend

Joy Reid has had her disagreements with the left. Her ardent defense of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid veered frequently into baseless accusations, online scolding of Bernie Sanders and promotion of the Russiagate conspiracy theory (FAIR.org, 9/3/16, 6/30/17, 8/24/16). Altogether, that contributed to Democrats’ refusal to conduct a true postmortem of the Clinton loss, the ramifications of which still aid Donald Trump’s dominance.

But during Joe Biden’s presidential tenure, Reid proved to be progressive, relative not just to MSNBC’s other anchors, but many in the corporate media writ large. As New York’s skies turned orange amid historic Canadian wildfires in the summer of 2023, for instance, Reid was one of the few who called out the role of fossil fuels (FAIR.org, 7/18/23).

While other outlets were overemphasizing the inflationary impact of President Biden’s paradigm-shifting economic stimulus in the wake of the Covid pandemic, Reid bucked the trend, drawing the ire of right-wing media (FAIR.org, 7/13/23).

Perhaps most notably, Reid was an outlier in her coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and its backlash in the US. A FAIR study (8/15/24) found that Reid’s show was the only weekday news program studied to feature students expressing pro-Palestinian sentiment during coverage of the student Gaza solidarity encampments that cropped up at college campuses across the country last spring. The same study found that her show was the only one studied to have mentioned the words “divestment” and “police violence” more than “antisemitism” in relation to the encampments.

Similarly, as outlets like the New York Times provided Israel cover for its bombing of the densely-populated Jabalia refugee camp that killed and wounded 400 Palestinians, Reid questioned how Israel could justify such a disproportionate attack (FAIR.org, 11/15/23).

The panel of Sanders-Townsend, Menendez and Steele promises none of that nonconformity. Instead, they represent MSNBC’s decision to represent an even smaller sliver of the Democratic elite. By elevating the former Biden and Harris advisor Sanders-Townsend, MSNBC has empowered someone with an interest in defending the current Democratic guard’s rule.

The Lincoln Project–affiliated Steele similarly owes his ascendancy to the sort of Democratic group-think that spurred Kamala Harris’s ruinous gun-touting, Cheney-approved centrist presidential bid. Expect Hakeem Jeffries praise.

Pointing out hypocrisy

Though not fired, Mohyeldin and Wagner are two more MSNBC figures who have elevated criticism of Israel and are now facing a demotion. Following ex-Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s finding that Sudanese military forces had committed genocide against the Sudanese people, Mohyeldin (MSNBC, 1/13/25) took to the airwaves to point out Blinken’s hypocrisy:

The horrific atrocities committed against the Sudanese should be labeled as genocide. But Blinken’s declaration begs the question: Why is the US unable to apply that same standard to Israel?

If the Biden administration is calling out the famine in Sudan, why not also address the ongoing famine in Gaza, which has been condemned by independent experts from the United Nations?

After New York Mayor Eric Adams sicced the NYPD on Columbia and CUNY students who had erected Gaza solidarity encampments, Wagner (5/1/24) brought on Jelani Cobb, the dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, and CUNY journalism professor (and MSNBC contributor) Peter Beinart, a well-known critic of Israel. During the show, Wagner said she agreed with Beinart that it’s “probably a good thing for our national discourse” if the encampment movement is remembered in history as a turning point for debate about US support for Israel. She also suggested that common misrepresentations of the student protestors as treasonous were a “cudgel” to distract from the issue of US foreign policy towards Israel.

Mouthpiece for elite interests

Wagner’s replacement is Jen Psaki. No one is more qualified to execute MSNBC’s crusade to become nothing more than a mouthpiece for elite Democratic interests. As Julia Rock wrote in Jacobin (5/13/22) when Biden’s former press secretary left the administration for her first MSNBC gig:

The skills required to act as a press secretary in corporate Democratic presidencies—saying little of substance, committing to nothing, dispensing snark and scoffs, and never even accidentally challenging power—appear to carry over well to playing pundit on MSNBC, the corporate network that serves as the Democratic Party’s de facto propaganda outfit.

As press secretary, Psaki was known for insensitive and condescending quips in response to the public’s desire for good things. After the Democrats’ John R. Lewis Act, which would have enacted broad voting rights reforms, failed to pass the Senate in January 2022, Psaki suggested the public “go to a kickboxing class” or “have a margarita” to rejuvenate their spirits (Business Insider, 1/21/22).

Then there was the time when Psaki got short with NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson in response to her question asking why the United States, unlike other wealthy nations, couldn’t distribute free Covid-19 test kits to every US household (Jacobin, 12/8/21). Psaki, suggesting the best way to provide tests was Biden’s convoluted plan for reimbursements through private insurance, asked Liasson, “Should we just send one to every American?” Feigning ignorance, she continued, “Then what happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost, and then what happens after that?”

Psaki’s knack for subduing the electorate’s impulse for government to meet their needs will serve MSNBC’s priorities well. Add to that her gig as a “crisis consultant” (Jacobin, 3/20/21) for the Israeli AI facial recognition startup formerly known as AnyVision, whose services were used to surveil Palestinians in the West Bank (NBC, 10/28/19), as well as her consultancy for the ride sharing giant Lyft (Business Insider, 4/1/22), and it’s no wonder she got the primetime 9pm slot.

Ideological thrashing

MSNBC’s rightward tack may come as a surprise to those who think it was born fully formed as Fox News’ liberal opposite. But its ideological thrashing over the years—oscillating between right-wing pundits like Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson and Michael Savage, and liberals like Phil Donahue and Keith Olbermann—before donning its current liberal identity in 2008, with the hiring of Rachel Maddow, shows the network is more akin to a cable news version of John Carpenter’s The Thing (FAIR.org, 8/28/21).

The owners of MSNBC—once Microsoft and General Electric, then GE alone, now the cable giant Comcast—have never held a commitment to its center-left brand beyond its capacity to capture as large a fraction of the market as possible. Now, as other mainstream corporate outlets like CNN are making similar adjustments (FAIR.org, 2/17/22), MSNBC seems to believe its best path to profit is shirking progressives.

The Democratic Party is facing an unprecedented—and justified—crisis in confidence among the public. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Democrats with just a 31% approval rating, the lowest since the school began measuring party approval. Meanwhile, a poll by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project found that “ending Israel’s violence in Gaza” was a top issue for voters who supported Biden in 2020, but cast their ballots for someone other than Harris in the 2024 election.

MSNBC’s firing and demotion of its most progressive ranks, the ones who aired criticism of Israel, means that the Democratic Party—currently America’s sole opposition party in Congress—is all the less likely to be held accountable as the authoritarian right attempts to steamroll through our democracy.

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an 12 23

In a new column, MSNBC host Jen Psaki is warning that a conspiracy theory popular with the most far-right fringes of society has now become standard conservative orthodoxy.

On Saturday, Psaki remarked on a comment uttered by businessman Vivek Ramaswamy that went relatively unnoticed during the fourth Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night, in which he baselessly suggested that the so-called "Great Replacement Theory" is "a basic statement of the Democratic Party's platform (it isn't)." That theory posits that Democrats seek to have immigrants and refugees "replace" the white population, with the overall goal of having them become registered voters to sway elections.

"The great replacement theory is definitely not a part of the Democratic Party platform. It is a conspiracy theory — one touted by neo-Nazis and avowed white supremacists," Psaki wrote. "The scary part is that it has become mainstream in Republican politics. There’s Donald Trump’s comments that immigration from the southern border was 'poisoning the blood of our country.' In the same vein, House Speaker Mike Johnson said in May that Democrats are 'intentionally' encouraging undocumented immigration to 'turn all these illegals into voters for their side.'

"It's all a part of a movement on the right wing to foment outrage and seize power by playing up the fear of the 'other,'" she added. "And it's not a strategy that is going away."

The "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory has also been popularized by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who frequently alluded to it on his primetime Fox News program to millions of nightly viewers. By the Guardian's count, Carlson mentioned it in approximately 400 episodes. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) have also been criticized for promoting the "replacement" conspiracy theory.

The growing prevalence of that conspiracy theory has led to violent and tragic outcomes. In 2022, the perpetrator of the mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York grocery store mentioned it in the manifesto he wrote prior to massacring 10 people and injuring three others at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood. While he didn't specifically name Fox News, he did admit to being radicalized on the forum 4Chan.

Neo-nazi Andrew Anglin, founder of the white supremacist website The Daily Stormer, called Tucker Carlson "literally our greatest ally" and lauded him for "dropping the ultimate truth bomb on his audience" in reference to the "great replacement" theory.

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

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an test 7 23 must remove ad block

right-wing group Moms for Liberty was recently hit with an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) complaint probing "whether Moms for Liberty is a political educational organization," The Guardian reports.

Per The Guardian, the eight-page complaint filed against the "extremist" group by a Michigan attorney "alleges that the rightwing organization is in violation of its 501(c)4 non-profit status," and also questions "if Moms for Liberty is an action organization, raising questions about its participation in political campaigns and active recruitment of school board candidates."

University of Pittsburgh Associate Professor of Law Phillip Hackney told the news outlet he doesn't believe the complaint will go far, but "said he does think the complaint is correct in bringing up the group's intervention in political campaigns."

READ MORE: Top Democrats ignorant of 'extremist' Moms for Liberty despite warnings the group is dangerous

The Guardian reports:

IRS investigations into a 501(c)4 like Moms for Liberty would be 'heavily fact intensive',Hackney said, with an agent reviewing materials and going back and forth with attorneys for 18 months. The IRS has a statute of limitations to complete an investigation within three years, he said. If the group's status is revoked after that time, it probably would not owe back taxes but would reorganize as a taxable, private organization with even less transparency and no prohibitions on political campaigning.

The complaint obtained by the news outlet states, "The promotion of social welfare does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. However, a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization may engage in some political activities, so long as that is not its primary activity."

The document also emphasizes, "It would be a permissible educational purpose if there were advocating to remove gender discussions from classrooms and schools if there was a balanced presentation of benefits and drawbacks of using a person's preferred pronouns, supporting LGBTQ youth, impacts on children of being 'exposed' to LGBTQ supportive environments. There is not." I DUNNO DOES LUNG ASSOC DO BENEFITS OF CIGS?

during a segment of MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki earlier this month, Psaki exposed the group in a scathing report, noting, "As for their claim that they are just a group of concerned, nonpartisan moms who happen to care about liberty, consider this: One of the founders, who's name is notably emitted from its website, is a current Republican school board member, who is married to the now-chairman of the Florida Republican Party. In 2021, he told The Washington Post, "I have been trying for a dozen years to get 20- and 30-year old females involved with the Republican Party. But now Moms for Liberty has done it for me."

READ MORE: 'May not be what you think': Jen Psaki exposes 'unapologetically extreme' Moms for Liberty group

The Guardian's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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an 7 23 no lnx

'May not be what you think': Jen Psaki exposes 'unapologetically extreme' Moms for Liberty group

Maya Boddie July 16, 2023

During the Sunday, July 16, episode of MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki, Psaki took a few minutes to educate viewers on the increasingly popular political group, Moms for Liberty.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, according to NPR, has deemed the nonprofit organization "extremist," saying, "They really are seeking to undermine public education holistically and to divide communities."

Psaki began the segment saying, "Since the height of the COVID pandemic, schools, teachers, and administrators have all become the targets of right-wing anger. First it was the reaction to COVID restrictions, which then morphed into outrage over the teaching of race and identity, and outrage over CRT — critical race theory. Which rapidly turned our education system into the frontline of the right's ongoing culture war. That anger no doubt sparked the rise of organizations, now focused on taking over school boards, pulling books from the shelves, and changing curriculums in schools across the country.

In fact, according to a 2022 report from a nonprofit that tracks censorship in America, 70 percent of those organizations were formed in about an 18 month period, beginning at the start of 2021. Among the largest of these new groups, which you may have heard of, is Moms for Liberty, and it's recently become something of a political powerhouse. Just a few weeks ago, they hosted five Republicans presidential candidates, including the frontrunners, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis — they all came out for Moms for Liberty."

READ MORE: Top Democrats ignorant of 'extremist' Moms for Liberty despite warnings the group is dangerous

She continued, "Now, the group has declared itself a nonpartisan organization, and its name does sound innocuous enough — Moms — great, sounds good. Liberty — awesome, who doesn't like liberty? "Moms for Liberty" — as the mom of two young kids, that even sounds good to me. But, it's vague enough, that even some of its own members are pretty unclear as to what the group is really all about, what they're a part of. One mom who became treasurer of an Indiana chapter was even quoted asking, 'What am I apart of? I need to know these things.' Fair question. Well, I'm here to help. I'm here to help you. Because as benign as Moms for Liberty may sound, its agenda is unmistakably extreme. For instance, you may not know that Moms for Liberty has been helping to lead the movement in pulling books from the library shelves, including classics, like The Bluest Eye — great book. The Kite Runner — amazing book. As well as other books that deal with race, diversity and sexuality."

Furthermore, Psaki said, "The group has turned school board meetings into unruly shouting matches. As an attendee at one Florida meeting described, 'They turn around and scream at me that I am a commie, and teachers want to see all kids fail. This group brings out the worst in people.' The group says this work, all this shouting, is the work of 'joyful warriors,' is what they call it. Sounds a lot more to me like pretty aggressive harassment. And that behavior is not isolated, it's part of a bigger pattern. Chapters and members across the country have led campaigns targeting community advocates, school board members, and opposing groups. They've repeatedly sent intimidating messages, openly threatened officials, and even baselessly leveled charges of child abuse and sympathizing with pedophilia. Unbelievably, an Indiana chapter even put out a newsletter that quoted Adolf Hitler, saying, 'He alone who owns the youth gains the future' — that is a Hitler quote. And while they eventually apologized, the organization seemed to later regret that apology."

The former White House press secretary then rolled a video of a MFL member saying to an audience that she supports the mom who quoted Hitler in the newsletter.

Psaki went on to say, "Standing by a mom who quotes Hitler in a newsletter. People cheering for that. That's what you just saw," adding, "And as for their claim that they are just a group of concerned, nonpartisan moms who happen to care about liberty, consider this: One of the founders, who's name is notably emitted from its website, is a current Republican school board member, who is married to the now-chairman of the Florida Republican Party. In 2021, he told the Washington Post, "I have been trying for a dozen years to get 20- and 30-year old females involved with the Republican Party. But now Moms for Liberty has done it for me."

READ MORE: 'Treacherous march of normalization': ABC News slammed for 'puff piece' on Moms for Liberty

The MSNBC host sarcastically commented, "Sounds pretty apolitical," emphasizing, "So, below the surface of their friendly sounding name, and politically vague taglines, they're an unapologetically extreme organization that has built a long record of harassment and controversy, in a pretty short period of time. Some free advice out there for people who are not sure what the organization is about — whether it's called Moms for Liberty or Puppies for Ice cream — it's worth looking into the agenda of an organization before joining it. Sometimes, it may not be what you think."

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: 'Shocking': Scholars condemn Philadelphia Museum for hosting Moms for Liberty event

NPR's full report is available at this link.

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an 121 fox News reporter mocked for 'gotcha question' after WH press secretary refuses to take the bait

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

January 26, 2021

Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy appears to have had a rough day in the White House press briefing room, after asking Press Secretary Jen Psaki hyper-partisan questions seemingly designed...

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