Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. You're about to hear my conversation with my good friend Jen Psaki, former White House press secretary for Joe Biden and host of MSNOW's The Briefing with Jen Psaki. Jen is one of those folks I could talk to for hours about anything.
But this week I invited her on because I wanted to talk to her, one former White House comm staffer to another, about how the Trump administration is trying to sell its war in Iran to the American people and how the media has covered it. We also talked a bit about the midterms, including how important Democratic primaries in Maine, Michigan, and elsewhere are shaping the future of the party.
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Chapter 2: How is the Trump administration attempting to communicate its war with Iran?
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Go to crooked.com slash yeswedan for 20% off of your subscription. Here's my conversation with Jen Psaki. Jen Psaki, welcome back to Pod Save America.
It's great to be here.
How are you?
I mean, the world is a shit storm, but otherwise I'm good.
Okay, we'll take that.
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Chapter 3: What are the challenges of Trump's cell phone interviews on media coverage?
That's a caveated good in Donald Trump's America. Yes. There are always, I could talk to you anytime, and unfortunately, because we live on other sides of the country, we only get to talk to each other on podcasts mostly.
Or when you guys are doing sold out events, then those two.
Yeah.
Yes, yes. Please emphasize we're sold out for everyone to know. There's always a good time to talk to Jen Psaki, but this is a particularly good time given what's happening in the world. And before you were a cable news star and a White House press secretary, you also very specifically worked at the State Department as a spokesperson and –
people may not know this, at the outset of the Obama administration, you were the person in charge of economic messenger during the financial crisis.
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Chapter 4: How are Senate primaries impacting the future of the Democratic Party?
We're now in the middle of a war and a emerging global economic crisis because of said war. And so you have a lot of expertise to bring to this. And I want to have a conversation here that takes a little bit of a step back and looks at Of course, what's happening in the world, but also your perspective on how Trump is selling this war.
But before we get to that, what's just your reaction to – what was your reaction when you woke up that Saturday morning to discover that we had gone to war with Iran? Both your reaction as a person, an American, and a member of the media would have to cover said war.
First of all, just as a sidebar, I didn't even do this for you, but I have in my coffee is in an economic report to the president mug from a relic I got from the economic team at the time just to prove that you were there. I think like so many Americans, I woke up and was scared because it is always scary when the country you're living in goes to war.
And it is not a decision, as you know well and I know well, that any president makes lightly to use military force, even if it's for a smaller engagement than this is. But I think I felt...
Chapter 5: What is the significance of the 'Fuck Trump' messaging strategy?
fear because Donald Trump has no impulse control. He's not a planner. He's not a policy wonk or expert. He doesn't listen to anyone around him. And so the concern I had once I had some coffee and digested a bit was How are we going to unwind from this?
I mean, you know, even even initially, even in that first day, because the military strikes and the military action and we have the best military in the world, bar none. That is true. You know, it's very difficult to dig out of what the impact of that is. And that was evident very quickly.
Chapter 6: How are MAGA media and the Trump base reacting to the war?
I mean, within days.
We're now three weeks into the war. Things seem to be getting worse, not better. They are expanding, not contracting. We seem to be further away from extricating ourselves than we were three weeks ago. And as we sit here recording this on Friday morning, there is reporting that the White House is getting closer to using ground troops.
There are some White House aides quoted on background saying how ground troops have been used in every war. Why wouldn't they be used here? That it's not that big a deal. Just help us understand both the substantive and political impact of putting ground troops either in Iran proper or in the islands like Karg Island in the middle of the Strait of Hormuz.
Chapter 7: What are the implications of using ground troops in Iran?
Well, it's a very slippery slope. And so even as we've seen the buildup of troops sending more even to the Middle East over the past couple of weeks, I think there was something like 50,000, plus there was another announcement a couple of days ago about a couple more thousand.
It is a slippery slope where it becomes kind of clear that in most scenarios of war, troops on the ground, as they say, that's where it was headed. And I think that is alarming on so many levels because that is something that is very difficult to dig out of.
Once you have people on the ground, you have the military and the commander in chief and others are going to want to do what they feel is winning. And that is, again, a question we don't know the answer to. What is winning here? How do we win? I mean, it's a big freaking question that they have not answered.
Also, we have a different view of that than Israel, which is a huge, massive, separate but important issue.
Chapter 8: How do the guests envision the Democratic Party's future messaging?
On the political front, I mean, I think there have already been lives lost. You and I both know very well, and I think we've both heard Barack Obama say this many times. I heard Joe Biden say this many times.
The most difficult phone call, the most difficult letter any commander in chief writes or should write, and I don't know how Trump feels, and I know he's devoid of human feeling and emotion in a lot of ways.
is to the family of somebody who died, even in a moment of, you know, a member of the military, even when they are defending the country, even when they are doing something that is of great honor and great sacrifice and certainly They all are. But this is a war that no one has any idea what it's about. Right. It feels like it's about his ego. It's about his feelings.
And so if you're these families whose 18 year olds, 20 year olds or 30 year olds or your husband is going, that impacts not just that family, but impacts communities, impacts states. It makes people question the worth of this. And then there is, of course, the issue that is beyond the impact on the military. And I think about the military impact in a lot of ways, like
states i mean just to be super political and i know we'll get there yeah of course about this and talked about this texas has the largest number of veterans in the country right it also has i think maybe the most or almost the most number of military bases in the country it also has one of the most interesting senate races in the country now a lot of those people probably voted republican and probably voted for john cornyn and maybe most of them will again but if some of them are like what is this about this feels a little iraq war like this feels i mean that's
You know, also Georgia, a huge military presence. Right. I mean, these are this is it can flow into that. And then there's, of course, the gas prices issue and impact of the longevity of a war like this. We've already seen it. I think I'm just going to go economic nerd, but I'll have the data in front of me.
You have the mug to prove it. So go for it.
I have the mug. I love data. I mean, I think as of last night, it really depends on the part of the country, but it was like anywhere between like 88 cents and over a dollar more per gallon, right? And gas. And there is no way to change that. You remember Amos Hochstein? We had him on, I talked to him last night. Yes, yes, yes. He was a little nerd I was embracing.
I just like wanted to keep it going. But he, there's no way, and we've seen military analysts and others say this, there's no way to change end the kind of dysfunction or the disturbance in the global oil markets unless the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, right? And that is either going to require a negotiation or military action.
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