The Media Research Center’s Curtis Houck kicked off his final week of having Jen Psaki to kick around as White House press secretary by writing about an “exit interview” she did with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz, cheering how Kurtz hit right-wing talking points by asking about “media access to President Biden, rumors about her move to MSNBC, and Twitter being a liberal echo-chamber.” Houck didn’t mention that his beloved Kayleigh McEnany would never have sat for an exit interview with CNN’s Brian Stelter (or that she didn’t do her job at all in the final two weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency).
Houck returned to anti-Psaki hostility in writing about the May 10 briefing, maliciously interpreting Psaki’s words while fluffing the latest person in the briefing room’s Fox News seat:
Filling in for Fox’s A-Team of Peter Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich, correspondent Alexandria Hoff joined The Psaki Show on Monday and Tuesday, as Jen Psaki began her final week at the podium, and Hoff made it count by joining other reporters in grilling her on the threats to Supreme Court justices due to the leaked draft opinion on abortion.
Starting with Tuesday, Hoff called out the Biden administration’s double standard when it comes to what they claimed were threats to the lives of school board members as “the Department of Justice was very swift in responding” and whether they’ll do the same toward (actual) threats to Supreme Court justices like Samuel Alito.
In response, Psaki predictably claimed Biden opposes “violence, threats, and…intimidation of any kind,” but then droned on about how Republicans are raging hypocrites when it comes to (alleged) school board threats, Michigan election officials, women seeking abortions, or January 6. Interspersed with that, Psaki said the administration “continue[s] to encourage” such protests and intimidation tactics.
[…]Psaki defended the mental terrorizing of justices and their innocent families, boasting that “the protests…have not turned violent” and “[j]ust because people are passionate” and< “fearful about their own healthcare,” “it does not mean they’re violent.”
“Mental terrorizing”? Isn’t that what Houck has been doing to Psaki for the past year and a half?
Houck used his summary for the May 12 briefing to tout the latest manufactured right-wing outrages:
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki went before reporters Thursday for her penultimate press briefing and she made it one to remember as she falsely claimed it’s “a conspiracy theory” taxpayer dollars are funding free crack pipes despite intrepid reporting from the Washington Free Beacon that government-funded “safe smoking kits” contain crack pipes.
And on more conventional topics, Psaki squared off with a number of journalists over the administration being caught flat-footed amid a nationwide baby formula shortage and an increasing hostility by President Biden and the White House toward the 70-million-plus non-Democrats as dangerous, “ultra-MAGA” fanatics.
Houck kicked off Psaki’s last day, on May 13 by lashing out yet again at Psaki (while backhandedly admitting she did a good job) while praising Peter Doocy and all the other right-wing reporters who lobbed biased questions at her:
Friday marked the end of an era with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki departing the Biden administration after over 200 editions of The Psaki Show, filled with humorous and tense moments. Simply put, Psaki was effective in having served as the chief spin officer and lying propagandist for President Biden amid a litany of crises as he himself has spent much of his presidency hiding from sustained questioning.
Hired away from CNN, Psaki is poised to move to MSNBC and NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock, which itself has been wrought with ethical concerns.
Fox’s Peter Doocy became a household name alongside Psaki for their many exchanges on everything from hot dogs to horses to inflation to sex ed in schools. As we’ve coined it here at NewsBusters, Doocy Time was appointment viewing for the Fox correspondent’s uncanny ability to ask questions the liberal journalists around him weren’t asking and in a way that was brief, respectful, and tough.
Doocy wasn’t the only person who stood out during Psaki’s tenure. Softball artists included usual suspects such as Yamiche Alcindor, Andrew Feinberg, and April Ryan while journalists who often joined Doocy in tough questioning included the Steven Nelson, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, former Fox colleague Kristin Fisher, and current colleagues Jacqui Heinrich, Alexandria Hoff, Edward Lawrence, and wife Hillary Vaughn.
This was followed by a Doocy-heavy list of top “moments” from Psaki’s tenure.
Houck waited three days before writing up the final Psaki press briefing, spending much of it complaining about her making “gooey platitudes” and an “emotional, eye-rolling series of thank you’s” before going on to seemingly endorse disruptive “heckling” from a reporter from Today News Africa.
Houck was silent on the fact that this was a much classier way of ending a tenure than McEnany, who read a statement the day after the Capitol riot, fled the podium and never held another presser in the final two weeks of Trump’s presidency. Then again, he was too busy tossing softballs to mention it in his interview with McEnany in April.