Psaki calls out Karoline Leavitt for failing to serve the American people as Trump's press secretary
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What does Jen Psaki criticize about Karoline Levitt’s tenure as Trump’s press secretary?
Hey everybody, it's Rachel Matto here. I wanted to tell you that more than a dozen of us from MS Now are gonna be in Texas on Saturday, September 26th. I'm gonna be there, Lawrence O'Donnell will be there, so will Gensaki. A whole bunch of us are all gonna be there in Texas. Tickets start at just over 30 bucks each, and if you buy a ticket, you will get access to our new MS Now membership free for a year. Tickets for Texas are on sale now. You can learn more at MSNow. Mess.mail slash together. Hope to see you in Texas.
There's a lot to talk to Senator Mark Kelly about, and I'm gonna get to that in a moment, but there is something that is happening in the Trump administration that I've kind of been dying to weigh in on more extensively. Because this week White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt announced that she is officially leaving the Trump administration. And look. There is a lot to say about her time in the briefing room, her role in the Trump era, and her departure, believe me. But I just want to start with what is not problematic about Caroline Levitt leaving the White House. I mean, there are more than a few armchair critics out there who have come at Caroline for her decision to leave the job just nineteen months into Trump's second term, saying she wants to spend more time with her family after the birth of her second child.
And I have plenty of issues with how Caroline Levitt has done this job that I will get into in a moment, and I've been doing my own version of the briefing since she started the job. But let me just say at the outset that it's not one of them. It's really hard to have a baby want a senior job at the White House. And believe me, there are unfortunately not hundreds or even dozens of past examples to model your experience after, including how long to stay in the job. I mean I was six months pregnant when I returned to be President Obama's communications director. Yes, there I am, very pregnant in that photo. Great photo. There you go. My kids were two and five years old when I went to work for President Biden as his press secretary.
That's a big part of why I only stayed in that job for fifteen months. Because I wanted to spend time with my kids too. So in my opinion, that's not where the critiques of Caroline Levitt should be. There are, however, plenty of other things that need to be said about Levit's tenure and how it damaged a job I was honored to serve in, as were many, many before me in both parties. One thing, there's how she saw the role. I mean, that's a fundamental base basic problem with how she served. And just to give you a sense, I mean, every single press secretary during their first briefing lays out how they see the job, or they're asked about it during the first briefing if they don't say it themselves. And there are a lot of examples of this.
But just to give you a sense here, here's what I said on the first day of my first briefing. We have a common goal, which is sharing accurate information with the American people. If the president were standing here with me today, he would say he works for the American people, uh, I work for him, so I also work for the American people. Now I thought about that and what I was gonna say. You know you're gonna be asked. I spoke with President Biden about that because I wanted to make sure it portrayed how he felt about that particular role. And I conveyed it that way because that's essentially what the job is. Yes, speaking on behalf of the president, but also delivering to the best of your ability accurate information to the American public.
Does every press secretary screw up from time to time? Yeah, sure, I did. Are there days when you don't have all the information you need to answer every single question? Sure. But every day your North Star, if you are doing the job right, is providing information about what the president is doing, how he's trying to make people's lives better, how the government is addressing whatever the crisis is of the moment, including ones they're not handling so well.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What does Jen Psaki criticize about Karoline Levitt’s tenure as Trump’s press secretary?
0:00–12:13
2
How does Psaki define the proper role of a White House press secretary?
12:13–24:36
3
Why does Psaki say the Trump administration’s briefings favor MAGA sycophants over real reporters?
24:36–37:29
4
What are the facts behind Trump’s proposed $300‑million ballroom project and its cost overruns?
37:29–42:32
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Briefing with Jen Psaki
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