← The Briefing with Jen Psaki
The Briefing with Jen Psaki
'An absolute gut punch': Psaki BLASTS Trump on White House demolition as public pushback strengthens
00:40:44
Jen Psaki reacts to Donald Trump's demolition of the White House's East Wing to make room for his vanity project ballroom, and takes heart in the increasing, and increasingly creative, ways that Americans are pushing back against Trump's authoritarian overreach.
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- [00:00]
Jen Psaki
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- [00:15]
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- [01:52]
I've come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells. We're in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War. President Trump is shredding our Constitution. The authoritarian takeover is not down the street. It is not around the corner. We are in the middle of it right now.
- [02:19]
We are in the middle of it right now. And I think everybody watching, most people watching, not everybody feels that. I mean, for anyone out there who thinks that this might still sound alarmist or hyperbolic, Trump has been blowing through the constitutional checks on his power more rapidly with each passing day. In just the last week, we learned that Trump is reportedly demanding that the Justice Department pay him nearly a Quarter of a billion dollars at the expense of American taxpayers. We saw him illegally fire yet another independent government watchdog without notifying Congress. We're seeing him allow the Pentagon to restrict the way staff and personnel engage with Congress, which is completely insane. And just today, we learned that Trump carried out his eighth. Yes, eighth extrajudicial strike on a boat that he claimed, without evidence, was smuggling drugs. No trial, no investigation, no attempt by the Coast Guard to intervene, just summarily executing people, whether they're guilty or not, because Trump said so. And as if any of that was too subtle, which it definitely is not, this week, Trump began literally tearing apart the physical foundations of the executive branch, demolishing the historic East Wing of the White House. We learned today that the whole East Wing will be demolished entirely, without consultation with any review agency, without consultation with the American people, and against even his own promise not to do exactly this. Now, to me personally, this is an absolute gut punch, not just because of the history of the building, of which there is a lot, and the hundreds of thousands of guests who have visited what should always be known as the People's House and walked down the long hallway looking at the photos of former presidents and their families and their pets and peered into the old movie theater that was there, too. But because Donald Trump is only doing this because he is an insecure man, baby, who wants to build a gaudy new ballroom that looks like a gilded event space from his club in Palm beach to boost his own fragile ego. I mean, look at what he did to the Oval Office. To paraphrase the president himself, nobody in our country has ever seen anything like this. He's going to do whatever he wants or try to. And the kind of authoritarian power grab we're seeing from Trump right now is an entirely new challenge. So it will require an entirely new response. We know this already. Business as usual is not going to work. Strongly worded letters are not going to work. This moment is going to take new and novel and creative forms of resistance from a broad swath of people to push back on it. That is what elected officials like Jeff Merkley tried to do by holding the floor for 22 hours. And luckily, he's not alone. And I don't just mean Cory Booker doing it a few months ago. I mean, today we saw Governor Gavin Newsom send a clear message on what the National Guard are supposed to be used for, helping their communities. He announced today that he is deploying his state's National Guard not to crack down on peaceful dissent like Trump, but to support Local food banks that are seeing a spike in demand after Trump's government shutdown cut access to critical food assistance. Yesterday, we saw Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays sue Congress to stop Trump and his allies from preventing a duly elected Democratic congresswoman from being sworn in to do the job she was elected to do. A case that could be precedent setting and prevent little Mike Johnson from delaying to swear in future members of Congress just over a year from now after the midterm elections. And we should certainly behave like that's a possibility. Also today, we saw two former deputies to Special counsel Jack Smith announce that they are not joining law firms that made deals with Trump. Instead, they've started their own law firm where they aim to assist, quote, state and local law enforcers who want to be more aggressive in investigating public officials suspected of abusing their positions for personal gain. Now, each of these are relatively, they're powerful acts, but they're small acts in defiance of defiance on their own. It's unlikely that any single one of them is going to be a complete game changer to get us out of this mess overnight. But taken together, they start to add up. I mean, taken together, they really matter and they become real powerful pushback. And not every action has to be a sweeping, headline grabbing spectacle either. I mean, not every action has to come from an elected official either. Actually, most of the most powerful ones don't. I mean, in Chicago, where ICE has been going around arresting tamale vendors they suspect of being undocumented, a brigade of cyclists started riding around to tamale vendors across the city and buying up their entire supply of tamales so that those vendors can avoid getting snatched by ICE and still making a living. What a powerful move that is. Another group in Chicago has been passing out whistles to community members so that they can alert their neighbors whenever ICE shows up. In Portland, the city Trump has tried to claim is overrun with violent and dangerous protesters, a couple decided to hold their wedding outside an ICE facility with the bride, the groom and all the guests dressed in wacky inflatable costumes to demonstrate the joy and whimsy of that city's peaceful demonstrations. Those are memorable photos, for sure. I mean, their wedding was a literal protest. Yesterday in North Carolina, people showed up in droves to protest the Trump backed plan to redraw that state's congressional maps. Protests and activism in Indiana and Missouri have been making it harder for Republicans to go through with their redistricting plans in those states as well. And we're going to talk more about that fight later in the hour. Too. In New York's Chinatown, local citizens surrounded ICE agents in an impromptu protest as agents conducted a surprise raid on the neighborhood street vendors. And of course, this weekend, we saw 7 million people across the country turn out to protest this administration, not just in big cities, but in tons of smaller communities as well. Places like Carbondale, Illinois, and Sturgis, North Dakota, and Paducah, Kentucky, and Waxhaw, North Carolina. On the surface, a protest in those kinds of places may not feel like national news. It may not make national news all the time. But the people there turned out because they knew that they were part of something bigger. The lesson here is that in a moment where it's hard to know exactly what to do, the only answer is to do something. To try anything, to try everything if you can. That's the lesson that compelled Jeff Merkley to hold the floor of the US Senate for 22 hours and 37 minutes.
- [08:57]
A modest number of people come out to my town halls. It averages about 100 per town hall. In 2024, I had about 3,500 people come in person. This year, I had 15,000 plus. So many people came to say, how the hell is a US Senate letting a president crush our freedom and shred our Constitution? And they would say, we see what you've been saying and doing in protest about so much of what's been happening. But you, Senator Merkley, need to do more. And quite frankly to my colleagues, that's the reason I'm on the floor tonight, trying to think of one more way I can ring the alarm bells, one more way I can use this office and this opportunity afforded to be a member of the US Senate to say, we cannot let this happen.
- [09:58]
See, some members of Congress do understand what is called for at this moment. I mean, when we got that news about Donald Trump shaking down or trying to shake down his own Justice Department for $230 million, wasn't there a part of you that wanted to just throw up your hands and say, there he goes again. This is all insane. I get it. But instead of throwing up his hand, Senator Merkley decided to hold the Senate floor for 22 hours. And Congressman Jamie Raskin got to work. Congressman Raskin started investigating, and guess what? The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee already learned something new. Congressman Raskin is standing by. He's going to talk to me all about it Here in just 90 seconds at US Cellular, you can get four.
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- [11:28]
Elise Labott
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- [12:04]
Jen Psaki
As promised. Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Jamie Ruskin of Maryland. He's the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. He is a real legal nerd in the best possible way. So you were just telling me during the 92nd break you've been kind of digging through to pass precedent of these kind of cases.
- [12:20]
Yeah.
- [12:21]
Tell me what you learned.
- [12:22]
Well, he filed an administrative complaint. Understand, no judge, no courtroom, no lawsuit, no jury. This is all a backroom operation behind closed doors. So he files the administrative complaint, gets into office. Now, he appoints to the two Department of Justice positions people who were his own personal lawyers. Who are the ones who are going to be deciding this?
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Todd Blanche being one of them.
- [12:47]
Todd Blanche being the deputy Attorney general, he's going to get to decide this. It's all behind the scenes. Nobody is representing the people here, the taxpayers who have to pay for this thing. And then what's extraordinary is what is in there. And remember, he's suing for stuff like they executed a judicial search warrant at his house at Mar A Lago. Yeah, that's what happens. Hundreds of thousands of times a year. There are legal search warrants executed at People's House. And you, you can't bring a claim for $75 million for punitive damages for something like that. First of all, the Federal Torts Claims act doesn't even allow for punitive damages. But he threw in $75 million in punitive damages. To punish the government for what? For following the law? For getting a judicial search warrant in a case like that. So he's asking for outlandish sums of money. One of the cases that came up was the Larry Nassar case. And of course he had sexually and assaulted hundreds of student athletes at Michigan. Well, all of those people together got $100 million less than what Donald Trump is asking for in secret, behind closed doors. So what he's doing to the White House this week is what he's doing to the Constitution and the rule of law. It's an absolute bulldozer. Now, on top of all that, it's unconstitutional. Why? Because Article 2, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution says the President is entitled to his official salary and not a dollar more and not a dollar less. Congress can't reduce his salary. Congress can't increase his salary. He can't take any other money.
- [14:36]
So he can't get this money.
- [14:37]
No, he can't take this money because it's coming from federal agencies and federal agencies and departments can't give him a dollar, nor can the states do it. But just like he blew right past the foreign government emoluments clause and is still doing it, like $400 million airplane grift gift from Qatar, he thinks that he can just take $230 million from the American taxpayers. So, you know, America has got to rise up on a bipartisan, transpartisan, non partisan basis to say no. This cuts against one of the central pillars of the Constitution, which is the presidency is not a money making operation for the guy who gets it in for his family.
- [15:17]
It seems crazy that people wouldn't. It's almost like an unbelievable headline. I learned another thing from you yesterday or this morning. It's all running together, just that this could be. And you referenced this confidential, I mean, that we wouldn't know if Todd Blanche, his lackeys, who represented him as criminal defense lawyers and are in position of making decision, if they decide, yeah, you can have $230 million. We wouldn't necessarily publicly know until the end of the year.
- [15:44]
That's right.
- [15:45]
That is crazy.
- [15:46]
We wouldn't know until we get some kind of accounting of their disbursements that also could be kept secret. And of course, we're dealing with a lawless administration, so they might sweep the entire thing under the rug. For all we know, they've already entered into this settlement. He's already gotten a payment. We don't know what has happened here. Somebody obviously leaked the fact that he was trying to shake down the taxpayers for $230 million and was so outraged by it, they went to the press with it. And you know, it's one more outrage in a week of outrages against the rule of law and against the Constitution. But the people have really got to blow the whistle on this. I mean, we're dealing with a Marie Antoinette type situation. They're bulldozing the White House to create a ballroom for billionaires and CEOs and oligarchs while they're taking health care and nutrition away from families, throwing, you know, lots of people off their health insurance plans across the country. And then in the meantime, he decides he's also going to be shaking down the taxpayers for $230 million for punitive damages which aren't even allowed under the statute that he filed his little administrative complaint with.
- [16:57]
By the way, they searched Mar A Lago because he was keeping classified documents in his gold laden bathroom. So there's that also.
- [17:03]
And we got pictures of it.
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And we have pictures. Let me ask you about the White House being bulldozed. It's like a gut punch. It's so horrifying to see and watch just on a human level. It's the people's house.
- [17:14]
I've been getting calls all day from my people's house.
- [17:15]
I can only imag people just feel emotionally tied, as they should. It feels crazy that this is legal. What is it?
- [17:25]
There are so many things that have happened that never would have happened before because the prior presidents have respected basic norms and values. Any major construction or renovation of the White House has gone through a process, has gone through the Congress, of course, they blew right past that and decided they were just going to do it on their own. And lots of people are saying, well, isn't this illegal what he's doing? Isn't it criminal? And we're still searching the statutes. I mean, he is violating so many basic precepts and values of our Constitution, our rule of law, that we haven't even embodied them in statutes. I mean, that's the problem with the Foreign Government Emoluments act. He got this $400 million airplane from the, you know, theocrat autocrats of Qatar, and people are saying, can he do that? Well, no, he can't do, but we don't actually have a statutory system in place to enforce that constitutional command. Now once the Democrats get the Congress back, we are going to legislate that so that any president who receives anything from any foreign prince, king, dictator or government will have to report it within 48 hours. And then Congress will have to rule on it within a week. No president has ever gone anywhere near what Donald Trump has done in terms of taking foreign gifts. You know, Abraham Lincoln got some elephant tusks from the King of Siam in the middle of the Civil War and he wanted to keep it. And he turned it over to Congress and sent a letter saying, I really love these elephant tusks. Can you keep them? And Congress said, you're doing a great job in the Civil War, Honest aide. But no, you can't keep them.
- [19:00]
No, give back the elephant tusks.
- [19:02]
In the meantime, we've got this guy pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, from Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Indonesia, you name it. And they're out there at home. They're talking America first. They're abroad taking all kinds of gifts and engaging in business deals with cor autocrats all over the world. It's the authoritarians first for Donald Trump.
- [19:23]
It is such an important point to end on. We will keep talking about this. You will keep talking about it. We have no idea where this money is coming from for this ballroom for the transition, which I've been thinking about. Congressman Jamie Raskin, thank you for being fearless and being a nerd in the best way, essentially.
- [19:38]
Thank you, Jen. I appreciate that very much.
- [19:40]
I appreciate you being here.
- [19:41]
Thank you.
- [19:41]
Yes, you should appreciate it, the compliment, I promise. Okay. Coming up, love. Lots of Republicans were asked about Donald Trump's attempt to shake down his own DOJ today, as we were just talking about, and wouldn't you know it, lots of them said they still hadn't seen the story that was front page. Big New York Times story somehow. Well, Senator Amy Klobuchar used her time on the Senate Florida Day to educate some of her colleagues. And she joins me here next. At US Cellular, you can get four.
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- [20:16]
Jen Psaki
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Oh, I hope it's gonna be Katherine, but I know it's gonna be Sarah.
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- [21:09]
Elise Labott
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- [21:42]
Jen Psaki
Okay, I'm just going to keep showing you this headline because it is really the most brazenly corrupt thing Donald Trump has ever tried. So here it is one more time from the New York Times. Trump said to demand justice department pay him $230 million for past cases. Now, as you can imagine, that story spread like wildfire. And yet here was Mike Johnson's first crack at answering our question about this story last night. The Times is reporting the president is asking DOJ to pay him 230 million for his past cases. Is that appropriate considering it's a department under his control?
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Senator Amy Klobuchar
I'm not going to comment on something.
- [22:17]
Jen Psaki
I haven't read, so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
- [22:20]
Okay, that was yesterday. Maybe little Mike needed some sleep some more time. Let's see what he had to say today.
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I don't know the details about that.
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Senator Amy Klobuchar
I've just read it.
- [22:31]
Jen Psaki
I didn't talk with him about that.
- [22:33]
Senator Amy Klobuchar
I know that he believes he's owed that reimbursement.
- [22:36]
Jen Psaki
What I heard yesterday was if he.
- [22:38]
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Receives it, he was going to consider giving it to charity. I mean, he doesn't need those proceeds.
- [22:42]
Jen Psaki
They attack him for everything he does.
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Senator Amy Klobuchar
It doesn't matter what it is.
- [22:48]
Jen Psaki
I guess at least he read it. Okay, how about over in the Senate? I mean, surely a Republican in the great body of the Senate has an opinion, right?
- [22:59]
I want to find out more about it because I don't know what the details are. Can I. You're telling me this right now. Can I kind of track it down? So let me just. Before I comment, let me. Let me. Let me read that on my own.
- [23:14]
All right, let's just try one more. Republican Senator Thom Tillis is retiring. He's got nothing to lose. Yolo let's see how we do there.
- [23:24]
Well, it seems odd, and I think he's in the difficult position where he's asking for something that he would approve. I think it's terrible optics.
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Seems odd. It's terrible optics. I mean, those are some serious understatements of the century. But I guess we'll take what we can get these days. Who? Okay. Joining me now is Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. She's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate leadership and has 1,000 jobs and hats she wears. Okay, there's a lot to talk about, but I just have to start. You've seen that headline. You just spent some of your time on the Senate floor talking about to figure out, what do you make of their responses.
- [24:03]
Senator Amy Klobuchar
He has decided at this moment when he could bring the people together, cuz he says he's art of the deal guy and get us out of this shutdown. But most importantly, make sure that Americans get the tax credits that they need to pay for their premiums for their health care as we're seeing these huge bills coming out, doubling of the cost of premiums. So what he's doing, he wants $230 million. From who? The taxpayers. That's who it is, the taxpayers of this country. And he is literally treating the Justice Department like his own law firm. And guess what? Some of the people there in high positions were his lawyers. It is like that wrecking ball that he took to the East Room. That horrible image of him destroying a historic building today, that's what he's doing to our justice system. And he just wants to say, are they going to say, yeah, sure, whatever you want. We'll give you $230 million for literally cases that were disposed of only because you became president.
- [25:03]
Jen Psaki
I mean, Todd Blanche is one of the people who would decide, Are you worried they may give it to him? It would happen.
- [25:08]
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Confidentially, he was actually asked about this at his hearing, his nomination hearing, and he, he implied that he would conflict himself out of some of these things. I don't know, but let's say he does, then who's the poor one left? Who's going to say, oh, no, Mr. President, when he fires every single person who doesn't do what he wants? And that is the problem these lawyers are supposed to take, and they do take an oath to represent the people, not the precedent. And the fact that this is taxpayer money while people's grocery bills are bleeding out, while they've got electricity bills that are way too high, while they can't even afford their health care premiums. And he goes, builds a ballroom, wrecks the East Room, and then distracts everyone. And this is my view, he thinks, what headline? Wow, what can I really get out there that's going to make people not realize what's happening to them? He does that. He pardons Jorge Santos, you know, the Spider man producer, the acclaimed volleyball winner, and he pardons him again. A day or two of news, but every single time, people are still getting those premium bills in the mail, or they're checking the websites and they're seeing how much their premiums are going up. Or they're looking, they're coming out of the grocery store going, oh, my God, look at what this guy has done. Look at the price of coffee. They're saying, maybe I voted for him because they thought he'd bring costs down, but he has betrayed that promise. That's what's going on. And especially in rural areas right now where hospitals are closing, where soybean farmers, their markets have dried up, their input costs have gone up astronomically. That's what they're thinking of. So he can try to do all this stuff he wants, pardon people. The horror of the wrecking ball, the horror of what he did when it came to the 230 million and saying he wants taxpayers to pay him off to fleece his pockets and give to whatever charity he wants. In the end, the bills don't lie.
- [27:00]
Jen Psaki
Yeah. Also the charity. Give me a freaking break on the charity. That's not a real thing. That was Mike Johnson's answer. You helped Senator Merkley. You were kind of a helper.
- [27:10]
Senator Amy Klobuchar
I was there early this morning.
- [27:11]
Jen Psaki
You were there early this morning. You also helped Senator Booker. I don't know how much caffeine you drink every day or how much you all drink. I'll note. Also, I said, this is the top of the show. Senator Merkley's turning 69 years old later this week. For people out there who think they're too tired to be active, what was compelling and interesting about it was that it really, as Senator Booker said, it captured people's attention. It reminded people watching who feel hopeless or feel like they want Democrats fighting that there are people fighting for them. You're also in leadership. Do you want more Democrats to do this? Do you think this is something that will happen more?
- [27:45]
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Well, I think what's most important is that we are standing up. We are standing up for people's health care. We stood with our constituents at the no Kings march as the biggest peaceful protest that we've seen in this country's history. And Jeff Merkley, the epitome of this, stood up for 20 some hours, not quite Cory's record, but he stood up through the night. And I think that people can stand up in many different ways. Sometimes it's speeches on the floor or sometimes it's just going out there to, you know, farmlands, to red counties, to red states. And I think it's really important as we see the weeks unfold here that Democrats keep speaking up in the red states and that we go to these red states. Why? 75% of the people that are on Affordable Care act plans that are going to see these premium increases are in.
- [28:34]
Jen Psaki
States Donald Trump won.
- [28:36]
Senator Amy Klobuchar
So it's important for us to make the case. Yes, our base is furious. There's a lot of people furious. But independents out there that like some balance. They're saying what is going on? He's literally destroying the White House right now or the East Wing. He's literally bulldozing it down while we see rights vanishing, while we see all of this going on. And then a whole bunch of moderate Republicans and even some conservative Republicans who care about the Constitution or who care about the bottom line when it comes to their businesses and these horrendous tariffs, they're speaking up, too. So today you had the beef people, the cattle people, I've got a lot of them in my state say, wait a minute, you just gave a bunch of money, right, billions of dollars that you're giving to Argentina, and not only did you screw the soybean farmers, but you're now going after beef and telling them to buy the Argentinian beef when they are already in trouble. So this is just creating. I never thought some of these people would spe like they have, but they're speaking out because their livelihoods depend on it.
- [29:43]
Jen Psaki
It impacts them. And the Affordable Care act subsidies are popular, hugely popular, more than bunny rabbits and ice cream, almost. Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you so much.
- [29:52]
Senator Amy Klobuchar
It was great to be on here for being here.
- [29:53]
Jen Psaki
Great to have you as always. Okay. Coming up, we're going to talk about what my old boss, Barack Obama, what he's doing. He picks his spots extremely carefully and he definitely picked one today. I'm going to explain when we come back. In so many ways, this is the most important story in the country right now. Republicans are trying to essentially steal enough congressional seats to keep their majority in Congress after next year's midterm elections. And Democrats are desperately trying to keep pace and fight back. Today, Republicans in North Carolina voted to gerrymander their state's congressional map to give Republicans yet another House seat. And don't just take my word for it. That was the explicit intention of this noon map. Here was the North Carolina state senator who prepared the map earlier this week.
- [30:48]
The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular. Draw a new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the North Carolina congressional delegation, I guess.
- [31:01]
Thanks for not hiding the ball on that one there, Mr. State Senator. I mean, this new seat from North Carolina means that nationally Republican have now gerrymandered their way into seven more House seats, five from Texas, one from Missouri, and now this seventh new seat in North Carolina. And again, the motivation for gerrymandering all of those seats has been incredibly transparent.
- [31:24]
Republicans hold a razor thin margin in the United States House of Representatives. And if Democrats flip four seats in the upcoming midterm elections, they will take control of the House House and torpedo President Trump's agenda.
- [31:38]
Again, I guess. Thanks for saying the quiet part out loud. So we all know, I mean, with those seven seats already gerrymandered and Trump pushing Republicans to gerrymander more maps in states like Florida, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska, Democrats are kind of getting creative and really starting to get some fire behind them. They're filing a huge number of lawsuits to try to invalidate these maps state by state. And they are starting to call the big guns in in to fight back, which is good. This is the latest yes on Prop 50 AD featuring former President Barack Obama endorsing Gavin Newsom's Prop 50 ballot initiative, known as the Election Rigging Response Act. And the word response is pretty key there. The act is a direct response to Texas's gerrymandered map, which again netted Republicans five more House seats. Prop 50 lets the voters of California decide whether or not they want to temporarily redistrict California in a way that would net Democrats five more House seats, seats counteracting Texas. President Obama has been notoriously picky with which political fights he has chosen to get involved with since he left office. So it kind of shows just how important this issue is that he is all in pretty much on this fight. And my bet is a big part of the reason is that the fight is not just about California. Here's what he said today on a call with volunteers.
- [32:55]
So part of what you're doing right now is not just helping to get Prop 50 passed. You're also helping to embolden and encourage people across the country who maybe have been a little discouraged, but know that Democracy is worth fighting for.
- [33:18]
That wasn't just Obama waxing poetic about the importance of fighting, which he of course believes. I mean, news that shows that, that all across the country there are still fights to be had, kind of supports what he had to say there. For months now, Trump and his allies have been putting a ton of pressure on Republican state lawmakers in the state of Indiana, trying to pressure them into gerrymandering the state's maps. Back in August, JD Vance even flew to Indiana to pressure lawmakers in person. And just last week, Trump called Indiana Republicans himself. A state senator on that call told the New York Times that while Trump did not make any threats against legislators who opposed his plan, he did offer to endorse any state senator who got behind it. The call ended by asking state senators to press one if they supported Trump's plan, or two, if they opposed it. So Trump could keep track, of course, of exactly who was opposing him. That's a ton of pressure. But check this out. Today, the spokesperson for Indiana's Republican state Senate leader says Trump still doesn't have the votes. That's interesting. Good news. We also got big redistricting news out of Missouri this week. Again, last month, Republicans in Missouri gerrymandered the state's mass to give Republicans another seat. But almost immediately, Democrats in the state started fighting back in a really creative way. Activists started gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would put Republicans new map to a statewide vote. And pivotally, the new map wouldn't be able to go into effect until after that vote took place. Meaning basically that if activists can gather enough signatures, which is about 110,000 signatures by December 11th to be exact, that would effectively veto the impact of this map on the 2026 midterm and let the people of Missouri decide for themselves whether to accept the Republican map after that. And it turns out, which is a cool story, that the no Kings protests this weekend were a great opportunity to move that project forward. Organizers say they gathered tons of signatures all across the state. That's pretty cool. So to zoom back out, if California passes Prop 50, that would cancel out the five congressional seats Republicans took for themselves in Texas. If activists in Missouri can get enough signatures on their ballot measure, they can take back the congressional seat Republicans took from them there. So the only new gerrymandered seats that Democrats don't actively have a plan to cancel as of this moment, which is key, is the one new seat Republicans made today in North Carolina. But the fight is far from over. Republicans are not giving up in Indiana. Or Missouri or any other state where they can jam through new maps to help Trump. And that's why it is so important to hear people like Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore say this yesterday.
- [35:56]
If Donald Trump is calling individual states and individual Republican states and saying, I need you to find me a congressperson here, I need you to do this, I need you to find me a fair map, then my point is this. If all these states are gonna have conversations about do they have a fair map, so will Maryland.
- [36:14]
I know it's easy to feel despair these days to many Republicans. I mean, many Republicans are playing by a different set of mag driven insanity inducing rules. But the fight is still ongoing and this fight over redistricting may just be the most important fight ahead. Coming up, after journals refuse to give up their editorial independence in exchange for access to the Pentagon, a whole new crop of so called reporters are moving in. And yes, it is as bad as you think it is. I'm going to explain it all. One of them, just to get you a sense, works for the MyPillow guy. Much more on that after a quick break. Last week, reporters who covered the Pentagon for a wide range of news outlets, from the Washington Post to ABC News to even Newsmax, turned in their access badges and left the building. Can see footage of it right there. They'd all refused to sign a pledge to report on only on information authorized for release by morning show host turned Defense secretary Pete Hegseth. What could go wrong there? We know lots of things. Even Hegseth's former employer, Fox News, was among the outlets that refused to sign onto Hegseth's demands. Now, since then, Pete Hegseth has continued to try desperately to control the information coming out of the Pentagon. He signed off on a new memo that instructs almost all Pentagon personnel to get approval before communicating with members of Congress and their staff. And today, his spokesperson announced a new Pentagon press corps which is dominated by right wing outlets like Real America's Voice and the Gateway Pundit, as well as Lindell TV, the streaming service started by Mike Lindell. Yes, the MyPillow guy in 2020 election conspiracy theorist. Now, Pete Hexseth is essentially setting up the Pentagon briefing room, a room that was once filled with fearless correspondents who were experts on the military with a bunch of Trumpy sycophants. This is also what Caroline Levitt is trying to do over in the White House briefing room, I would note. Look, I've spent a lot of time, a lot of time being grilled by tough reporters including my next guest. That's the point. Part of what protects a thriving democracy is a free press that can hold the government to account. But that is not what this administration wants. Their goal is not checks. Their goal is not tough questioning. Their goal is to model the press corps here after the fawning state run media that follows guys like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin around. And that should be chilling. Joining me now is Elise Labet. She's a veteran foreign affairs journalist, the founder and editor in chief of Zivi News. She's also someone who used to grill me relentlessly when I was the spokesperson at the State Department. There we are. We looked for footage today. There was a lot, lot of grilling from Elise Labitt of me in the State Department. I would just note, which is kind of the point I wanted to.
- [38:54]
Elise Labott
It wasn't always pleasant.
- [38:55]
Jen Psaki
No, often it was unpleasant. You and Matt Lee? I'm still recovering from it. I wanted to do this story because I think it's so important for people to understand from people, somebody who sat in the seat what the impact of this is. So solicitor, tell me a little bit about the impact of the reshaping of who the Pentagon press corps actually is. Who's going to be following Pete Hegseth around?
- [39:17]
Elise Labott
Well, these are very, let's you know, in the papers they're calling them conservative outlets, Jen. If they were like you know, card carrying conservatives, Reagan conservatives or you know, even let's just say more right wing than what the larger press corps, I would say okay, well conservatives tend to be very tough on national security. But these are very pro maga, pro Trump friendly. I don't even know if pro Trump, pro Hegman. And so it's kind of like reminds me of when you and I used to travel to Moscow and they would have all these like little Sergey Lavrov girls coming around like oh, you know, foreign minister, you look very handsome today. I mean what, what are they going to be covering? They're going to be covering, you know what Pete Hegseth was like, clean shaven and well looked fit. I just don't know that they're introducing this new press corps that's going to have that traditional adversarial relationship with the national security agencies. I not only have been a reporter but I've also taught in university about the relationship between the press and the NATSAC agencies. And over time, you know, it's been an adversarial but also a relationship I think that's very beneficial to the American public.
- [40:37]
Jen Psaki
No question about It. And there are times, even as the spokesperson, where, you know, our answers are bad, Right. And this isn't enough information and you get grilled on it, and then the public gets to see it. The Pentagon has a great group of reporters, as does the State Department, and they do a lot of their reporting when they're not in the building. But what are the drawbacks to them not being in the building?
- [40:59]
Elise Labott
Well, look, I would say that both the Pentagon and the State Department, where we were, are some of the most substantive press corps that there are. And you know what's really interesting? They don't care about the politics. They really care about the issues. They care about that plane and all of the features of that plane. And they're kind of geeks in a way. And these are the kind of reporters that you want there that really care about the substance and don't care about the politics. And that's why some politicians like Hillary Clinton or Chuck Hagel, who used to go to these agencies, like dealing with the press corps there, because they weren't even getting that political questions. I think what's going to be lost is, is those relationships, that trust that's built up over time. You get these relationships and then you realize, oh, you can trust that person. They haven't burned me. I've known them for years. Some of the sources that I had at the State Department, I knew them over a course of 20 years. And so, you know, over time of them giving me stories and me covering them in the right way, they knew that they could trust it. Also, you know, some of the stories that are gonna be lost are those personal stories that you hear from someone in the cafeteria or you hear from someone you know in the parking lot about families, about veterans, about pay, about housing. Some of those stories, and I think one of the things I'm really worried about is some of the missteps, some of the mistakes of the safety errors. Those are the kind of things that are going to get lost. And I don't think in this. I know they're doing similar things at the White House, but I'm more worried about, about Secretary Hegseth and what he doesn't want anybody to know. Even people in the White House, you saw those. Some of the stories that are coming out. President Trump didn't even know about it. And so I don't think this policy, particularly on the national security front, is really serving President Trump.
- [42:50]
Jen Psaki
Elise Labet, thank you for breaking it down all for us. And I'm so grateful you could be.
- [42:54]
Elise Labott
Here with us tonight.
- [42:55]
Jen Psaki
Thank you.
- [42:55]
Elise Labott
Good to be with you.
- [42:56]
Jen Psaki
All right. Coming up, a sneak peek of my conversation with one of the most interesting Democrats in the country. We'll be right back. Okay. New episode of my podcast the Blueprint dropped today. And my guest this week is Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. And I just want to show you one very valuable piece of advice for Democrats he shared with me during our conversation. You've said that Democrats need to be more normal or talk more normally. I'm paraphrasing for you. I very much identify with this. But what do you mean by that?
- [43:30]
That? Well, what I mean is that for some of the right reasons, advocacy speak has snuck into our language. And it snuck in in a way to where it sounds like we're talking down to people. And so if we're going to communicate with the American people, we can't be professors. We can't sound like we're smarter than everybody else. We just got to talk to them same way we talk to our friends, same respect we'd show to them.
- [43:58]
You can listen to the rest of that conversation and follow the Blueprint wherever you get your podcast. That does it for me today. You can catch the show Tuesday through Friday at 9pm Eastern on MSNBC. And don't forget to follow the show on Blue sky, Instagram and TikTok.
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