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Jen Psaki Responds to Ronna McDaniel Comparison

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 27, 2024 9:00 AM

In the few short days that former RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel had been hired as a commentator for NBC News, the leftist media collectively lost their minds. NBC News' Chuck Todd was a particularly ridiculous example. MSNBC had, after all, also hired Jen Psaki. Although McDaniel is no longer with MSNBC, as Matt reported Tuesday night, it's still worth highlighting and calling out Psaki's response.

Not only does Psaki host "Inside with Jen Psaki" on Sunday, but on Monday as well. The network announced such a decision last September, in a move that was believed to have something to do with the 2024 elections as our sister site of Twitchy highlighted. 

As NewsBusters covered, Psaki addressed the comparisons during her Monday show, and her response, just over two minutes, with a straight face no less, was as entitled and tone-deaf as you'd expect. 

"You may have seen some news over the last few days about the hiring of former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as an NBC News contributor. And some, mainly in the right-wing ecosystem, have made the comparison to others who have come from government or politics into the media--including me," Psaki began, noting " that is a comparison I felt like I had to address."

What followed was not only a useless biography. "I got into public service for the same reason that many people do. To serve the American people. I worked on my first political campaign when I was just 24 years old," she shared, as she went to to explain how she worked for Barack Obama," along with the mention of how "I wanted to work on behalf of the American people to try and make their lives better. That's why I did campaigns and a few years later, I would do the same thing for President Biden when I went to work for him in the White House."

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While Psaki's time as press secretary could be described in many ways, and in not necessarily flattering terms, Psaki described it as how she "was in the room for tough debates, for difficult decisions, for the messy and at times, incredibly grueling process of governing," adding "that experience is something that I am extremely proud to bring to this table and to this network," and that "there are many others who have followed a similar path who I have a great deal of respect for."

"But here's the thing. That kind of experience only matters and only has value to viewers, all of you, if it is paired with honesty and with good faith," she continued. "Those qualities are especially important right now at a time when our institutions are under attack and when our democracy is in danger. And our democracy is in danger because of the lies that people like Ronna McDaniel have pushed on this country," she went on to lecture.

Psaki even quoted a recent post from former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), perhaps the most notorious opponent of former and potentially future President Donald Trump, who lost her August 2022 primary by nearly 40 points. 

"Look, this isn't about Republicans versus Democrats. This isn’t about Red versus Blue," Psaki went on to claim. "This is about truth versus lies. Service to the country versus service to one man committed to toppling our democratic system. That is the kind of experience that Ronna McDaniel brings to the table. And that experience does not get us to a deeper understanding of anything in the public debate," she said, going for some particularly hyperbolic language before mercifully cutting to commercial break. 

Psaki lied from the podium, and she was sarcastic and snappish with reporters as well, also laughing at inopportune moments. In particular, let's not forget how she tried to spin Hunter Biden's laptop as Russian disinformation during the campaign and then tried to run away from that story, downplayed the illegal protests going on at the homes of conservative justices after the Dobbs decision, and even claimed they "encourage" such protests. We also now know that the ethics concerns about the sale of Hunter artwork were not as unfounded as she tried to make them out to be. 

Her rhetoric away from the podium, but while she was still the press secretary, was also ugly, considering she called Fox News' Peter Doocy "a stupid son of a bitch."

"What distinguishes Psaki from the rest of this lot is that none of them babbled about honesty and good faith after having exited a career distinguished by its dishonesty and bad faith. Most people in this position just take the bag and go on about their business without the moral preening, especially when they lack the moral standing to preen in the first place," Jorge Bonilla also mentioned in his NewsBusters piece.

Plenty of users also chimed in with replies and quoted reposts about Mediaite's coverage of Psaki's remarks. 

Psaki wasn't done chiming in on the matter, though, even after McDaniel and NBC had cut ties. 

On Tuesday night, even after the news had already come in, Psaki reposted The Atlantic's Tom Nichols who claimed those trying to equate hiring McDaniel with Psaki as an example "are eliding the difference between people who work for politicians and spin for them and people who were trying to undermine the US constitutional order."