Psaki enters TV’s weekend fray with public affairs show
Seven months into her new television career, it’s clear that Jen Psaki didn’t sign with MSNBC to just dabble in the media.
The former White House press secretary was up early on a recent Monday to appear on the 6 a.m. Eastern hour of “Morning Joe” and spoke to Lawrence O’Donnell on “Last Word” 16 hours later. She taped an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” on CBS in between.
She’s got a new show to promote — her Sunday series “Inside with Jen Psaki” recently premiered — yet that doesn’t fully explain the busy schedule.
“When I look at Jen and her potential, she’s absolutely a big part of our future,” said MSNBC President Rashida Jones. “You’ve seen that already.”
The network is banking on Psaki and her popularity with MSNBC’s liberal audience. She has already taken a seat at the anchor desk on big events such as midterm election night and her former boss’ State of the Union address, and makes frequent appearances on day-to-day shows.
She will write a regular column for the network’s morning newsletter and is developing a yet-to-bedescribed show for the Peacock streaming service.
Psaki, who was spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department from 2013 to 2015, and was Barack Obama’s last White House communications director before serving President Joe Biden, said she considers herself retired from the world of political and government communications.
“I’m not looking in the rearview mirror,” she said.
She has been concentrating on learning new skills, like reading a teleprompter. Her previous jobs showed she was comfortable talking on camera; Jones has been watching carefully to see if she can fruitfully move a conversation along as an interviewer.
Her new program, which airs at noon Eastern time, puts Psaki in the company of longrunning Sunday public affairs shows such as “Meet the Press” or “Face the Nation.” There’s an expectation in that territory that you’ll have guests that can be pushed to produce news, not just the commentary that clogs many cable news hours.
“I think it will be a place where people will want to come and make news,” Jones said. “Jen has a way about her where people want to have a conversation with her, and I think it will become a destination, not only for the top guests and newsmakers, but also for our audience.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was the first “Inside” guest on “Weekend Routine,” what Psaki plans as a regular feature to get to know a newsmaker in a less formal setting. She rode the subway with him, and he made a smoothie in Gracie Mansion, along with answering questions about politics, immigration and crime.
Another planned segment, “Don’t Freak Out,” has Psaki using her policy experience to explain why some stories aren’t as big as they seem.
“There’s often a view that everything is a fivealarm fire, and it’s not,” she said.
To make herself a true player in Sunday morning journalism, Psaki will need more than Democrats to appear. Psaki said she hopes her background explaining national security issues will make Republicans who want to talk about those issues comfortable on her show, for example.
She won’t just interview people she agrees with “because I don’t think that’s very interesting,” she said.
Despite having stood at a White House lectern defending Biden, Psaki said she understands that’s no longer her role now that she’s at MSNBC.
“I have made it clear when I think some things could have been handled better,” she said. “I’m not going to shy away from that. I’m also not going to shy away from the fact that I was proud to work for President Biden, proud to work for President Obama and Secretary (John) Kerry.”