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The Briefing with Jen Psaki

MSNBC

Jen Psaki tackles the biggest issues of the week and features one-on-one interviews with newsmakers.

Location:

Washington, D.C.

Genres:

US News

Networks:

MSNBC

Description:

Jen Psaki tackles the biggest issues of the week and features one-on-one interviews with newsmakers.

Language:

English


Episodes
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TRUMP'S TANTRUM BACKFIRES: Lawsuit is 'the stupidest thing he could have done,' says legal expert

7/19/2025
Donald Trump's desperate desire to make everyone stop talking about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein has run contrary to his petulance as his lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for publishing his creepy birthday message to Epstein guarantees new news and developments in the story for the public to discuss for months to come. Former U.S. attorney Harry Litman, and MSNBC senior reporter Brandy Zadrozny discuss Trump's disastrous damage control.

Duration:00:42:04

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TRUMP IN SHEER PANIC: Report suggests Epstein 'secrets'; Republicans look for the exits

7/18/2025
New reporting from the Wall Street Journal says that Donald Trump's message to Jeffrey Epstein on his 50th birthday suggested common interests and "wonderful" secrets between Trump and Epstein. Donald Trump has reacted with threats and outrage, and Republicans are scrambling for a place to hide.

Duration:00:42:00

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TRUMP TRAIN WRECK: Wheels come off as Trump throws crash out tantrum over Epstein files

7/16/2025
Jen Psaki reports on Donald Trump's spiraling freak-out over the public interest in the investigation files on notorious pedophile and close friend of Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, with Trump going so far as to condemn his own followers as "stupid," and attempting to somehow blame his involvement with Epstein on Democrats.

Duration:00:40:58

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Epstein blunder exposes Trump as the 'unaccountable elite' his supporters sent him to attack

7/16/2025
A key element of Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories is that Epstein's friends and "clients" are wealthy elites who commit horrible crimes against underage girls but never get in trouble for it because of their elite status. And so, key to Donald Trump's support is the idea that he would bring accountability to those elites. Jen Psaki argues, now that Trump is apparently standing in the way of the release of information about the Epstein case, Trump is being recognized as the unaccountable elite he actually is and has always been.

Duration:00:41:47

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Trump's Epstein turmoil triggers MAGA meltdown

7/11/2025
Jen Psaki reports on how the Trump administration's insistence that there is no worthwhile information to be released from the files on notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is not sitting well with supporters who believed the many stories spun by now-serving members of the administration. And that discontent is reportedly also seeping into the administration.

Duration:00:40:40

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Trump steps up effort to prevent truth from exposing his administration with new appointee

7/11/2025
Jen Psaki points out how much of what we know about what the Trump administration is up to is due to leakers and whistleblowers on the inside exposing the truth about an administration where lying is the norm. Trump has been trying to silence truth tellers since his first day in office, and now he wants to put a loyalist, Paul Ingrassia, in charge of the Office of Special Counsel, the watchdog that deals with whistleblowers.

Duration:00:40:43

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'No earthly clue what he's doing': Psaki shreds Trump's poor grip on his own government

7/10/2025
Jen Psaki piles up evidence in a litany of examples of Donald Trump having no idea what he is doing, what is being done in his name, or what is going on in his own administration, and not even doing a very good job faking it. Meanwhile, the scammers are running amok, planting ideas in Trump's head and manipulating him on issues like cryptocurrency regulation.

Duration:00:41:08

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Amid Trump's FEMA phase-out, disasters make stark the need for federal help

7/9/2025
Jen Psaki looks at questions about the preparedness of FEMA to offer its full assistance to Americans struggling through natural disasters while Donald Trump works to phase out the agency. Former FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell joins to discuss how federal assistance can help in emergencies like the deadly flooding in Texas.

Duration:00:40:02

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The backlash begins: Republicans heading home from D.C. face local protests over Trump bill

7/4/2025
Jen Psaki remarks on how the devastating removal of health care and food aid to millions of Americans was actually only an afterthought for Republicans, in service of tax cuts for rich people, and reports on protests already spreading nationwide.

Duration:00:41:23

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Psaki: Republicans will regret passing Trump's bill as Democrats look to reprise 2018's House flip

7/3/2025
Jen Psaki looks back at how Democrats made Republicans pay for their efforts to kill Obamacare by making that a central focus of House races that ultimately flipped the House to Democratic control. Donald Trump's budget bill is so wildly unpopular that Democratic candidates are already preparing to run against the bill and anyone who supported it. Republicans, in the meantime, are busy trying to distract Americans from what they're doing.

Duration:00:45:21

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Frost: Republicans short on votes for Trump budget bill as Democrats raise public alarm

7/2/2025
Rep. Maxwell Frost talks with Jen Psaki about the uphill battle Republicans face in the House to pass Donald Trump's budget bill because they're already well short of the votes they need. Democrats hope that by delaying the vote, enough people will learn about the bill to make it too unpopular to pass.

Duration:00:40:45

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Trump's budget bill is widely hated but Republicans are trying to push it through anyway

6/30/2025
Jen Psaki reviews the terrible poll numbers of Donald Trump's budget bill, including among Donald Trump's core constituency, and runs through the diverse array of people and organizations, some of whom would otherwise be aligned with Trump, who utterly reject the bill's content as well as its intentions.

Duration:00:42:41

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The protests were practice: Americans are prepared for Supreme Court's obstacles to opposing Trump

6/27/2025
Jen Psaki looks at how we arrived at today's Supreme Court ruling on nationwide injunctions, from Donald Trump's unpopular policies, frequently unlawful executive orders, and Republican lemming Congress, to the state attorneys general defending rights and the rule of law, and the millions of Americans who have been organizing against Trump. That organizing is going to be useful as the Supreme Court has left the door open on using class action lawsuits to oppose Trump's orders.

Duration:00:41:05

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Trump team frantically moves goalposts, throws tantrums to preserve Trump Iran bombing story

6/26/2025
Jen Psaki looks at the strenuous lengths to which Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard are going to support Donald Trump's story that bombing Iran was a work of military genius that obliterated the Iranian nuclear program, even as facts continue to emerge that suggest a different reality.

Duration:00:41:53

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'From lecturing to listening': Mamdani explains how he drew votes from Trump supporters in NYC race

6/25/2025
In his first national interview since Tuesday's primary election New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani talks with Jen Psaki about the principles of his campaign and how he reached out to voters who had previously chosen Trump, and how he countered significant opposition spending.

Duration:00:40:58

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Trump's Iran lies begin to crumble into an embarrassing mess

6/25/2025
Jen Psaki reports on the evolving explanations and contradictory statements from the Trump administration about the U.S. bombing of Iran, and new reports that Iran's nuclear program is not, in fact, "obliterated," as public polling already shows that Trump's decision to bomb Iran is mostly unpopular with Americans.

Duration:00:41:30

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Vance gets the cause of fear in L.A. totally backward in trying to justify military presence

6/20/2025
JD Vance came to Los Angeles with the goal of making the case that the fear of unruly protests justifies the continued deployment of military forces of the city (and other cities), completely ignoring the fact that what the people of Los Angeles are actually afraid of is Donald Trump's militarized raids and street snatchings.

Duration:00:41:38

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Psaki calls out media that fell for Trump's 'two week' trick

6/20/2025
Jen Psaki points out the mistake some media outlets made in relaying Donald Trump's two-week deadline to make a decision on U.S. action on Iran, without also pointing out that Trump often promises to do things in two weeks, and seldom actually follows through.

Duration:00:41:07

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Trump's lack of foreign policy principles tears MAGA apart on Iran

6/19/2025
Jen Psaki looks at the various influences manipulating Donald Trump as he makes decisions on the war between Israel and Iran without having any personal principles mooring his thinking, and how his lack of leadership is leaving his supporters to fight with each other.

Duration:00:41:45

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Outrage grows over ICE overreach as public gets wise to Trump's dirty tactics to round up immigrants

6/18/2025
Jen Psaki reports on yet another public official being arrested by ICE in the course of their heavy-handed tactics in rounding up immigrants. But each new instance of abuse of power by ICE is met with more vocal outrage and louder public protests.

Duration:00:41:28