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Jen Psaki is back with her latest edition of the White House press briefing, “Jen’s version.” On Monday, Psaki, who served as press secretary under President Joe Biden, took on some of the questions reporters lobbed at Karoline Leavitt earlier in the day and called out Donald Trump’s press secretary for her “prop work.”
“In a regular White House, the Briefing Room is — it’s a place where basically journalists get to ask anything they want, and the press secretary answers to the best of his or her ability, representing the president of the United States,” Psaki said. “In this White House, though, as I think we all know, the Briefing Room is often a place where disinformation is spread, misinformation is spread, all in a place the American people are trying to get information.”
“In this White House, though, as I think we all know, the Briefing Room is often a place where disinformation is spread,” Psaki said.
“And sometimes, they practice some light prop work of sorts,” Psaki added, referencing Leavitt’s display of what she said was the president’s handwritten note to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
“This was the press secretary today, bandying about this list of global interest rates, hand-annotated by the president, to be delivered to the chairman of the Federal Reserve,” Psaki said, while showing a photo of Leavitt holding up the document covered in Trump’s Sharpie scribbles. “Because, sure, I guess. That is how this White House does policy, or whatever.”
“And since this White House does not appear to take these briefings seriously, I figured I would take a shot again at answering some of the questions from today,” Psaki said, before offering her take on the topics making headlines, including the Florida migrant detention center that has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” Republicans’ megabill and whether Trump wants Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani deported.
When it came to questions over Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” Psaki brought out a prop of her own. The former press secretary noted that there is “a whole lot of Republicans in Congress who just barely eked out a win last November, or who are in vulnerable purple districts.”
“The midterms are not that far away,” Psaki warned, before displaying a list of Republicans at risk of losing their seats. “I’m just gonna say, here’s a little prop, for everyone, of districts to pay attention to.”
You can watch Psaki’s full take on Monday’s White House briefing in the clip above.