The Briefing with Jen Psaki

October 6, 2026 - Jen Psaski interviews Troy Jackson, Democratic candidate for Senate from Maine, fresh from his debate with his Republican opponent, Susan Collins, about the tight race, the political mood in Maine, and the liability Donald Trump has become for Republican candidates.
Jen Psaki talks with Jim Messina, campaign manager for Barack Obama 2012, Shawna Thomas, MS NOW political director, and Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, about whether the ProPublica report about Senator Susan Collins being caught up in a pay-to-play scheme is hurting her campaign for reelection, particularly in an atmosphere of pervasive Trump corruption.

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When Donald Trump boasts that a new steel plant is already under construction in Iowa, who better to check the veracity of that claim than the people in Iowa who live where the plant is supposedly being built? Jen Psaki shares examples of Donald Trump making promises on the campaign trail that have no basis in reality as far as the people most closely connected to the news can tell.
Former Senator Doug Jones talks with Jen about Donald Trump preaching to the choir campaign tour.
Jen Psaki considers Donald Trump accusation that news organizations are spreading misinformation about national security and takes a closer look at the information Trump is spreading, including an odd claim that Iran had drug factories in their nuclear factories when U.S. bombs blew them up. The White House was not helpful in shedding further light on Trump's claim.
Free speech attorney Ted Boutrous talks with Jen about progress in the lawsuit brought by news organizations against the Trump administration over the banning of members of the news media from the White House.
Fallon Gallagher, MS NOW legal affairs reporter, talks with Jen about breaking news of a new filing in the White House press ban case.
Jen Psaki relays new reporting in The Atlantic about the lengths to which FBI Director Kash Patel will go to win Donald Trump's favor even if it means neglecting the FBI's national security responsibilities or interfering in the midterm elections.


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Jen Psaki explains that Donald Trump is hosting another dinner in support of his cryptocurrency meme coin, ignoring the fact that his own followers took massive losses investing in the coin, with many openly disparaging him for it.
Rep. Jamie Raskin joins to discuss the myriad ways the Trump administration operates outside of ethical and even legal bounds, and the investigations Democrats are likely to open if they win control of the House.
Jen Psaki shares highlights from a new interview Donald Trump gave to Time magazine that shows someone woefully out of touch, misguided on the facts, and tone deaf about his political situation.

Jim Acosta, former White House correspondent for CNN, joins to discuss Donald Trump's resentment of a news media that won't adore him.

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September 30, 2026 - Despite the increasingly dangerous global security environment, made even more dangerous by Donald Trump's inexplicable war on Iran and Pete Hegseth's mismanagement of it, Hegseth has devoted his attention to prioritizing a cartoonish image of what it means to be an American servicemember. Michael Steele discusses with veterans Rep. Pat Ryan and Rep. Chris Deluzio.
Former congressman and ambassador, Rahm Emanuel, joins to discuss the steady implosion of Ken Paxton's Senate campaign in Texas and the responsibility Donald Trup bears for for putting Republicans at a disadvantage in Texas for the first time in a very long time.
Senator Eric Schmitt was warned that the text message he planned to use as a perjury trap for special counsel Jack Smith had not been vetted, but Schmitt was so convinced of his own conspiracy theory about the criminal investigations of Donald Trump that he ignored the warning and ran headlong into humiliating himself in the national spotlight. Capitol Hill reporter Mychael Schnell joins to explain MS NOW's exclusvie reporting and former Senator Claire McCaskill provides her analysis.

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Jen Psaki shares the events at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in which Republican Senator Eric Schmitt thought he had caught former special counsel Jack Smith in a perjury gotcha only to be called out for his spectacular failure by Senator Amy Klobuchar who pointed out that Schmitt's blind spot for women's sports led him into what Psaki describes as a "slow-moving self-implosion" leaving Smith unscathed and unflapped.
Senator Amy Klobuchar joins Jen to talk about destroying Senator Eric Schmitt's big "gotcha" moment with a simple fact check.
Senator Cory Booker joins to discuss the issues facing the Senate and the U.S. government broadly.
Rep. Jim Himes, likely chair of the House Intelligence Committee if the Democrats take control of the House with the upcoming midterm elections, talks with Jen Psaki about how Democrats intend to investigate Trump administration corruption like pay-to-play deals if they are able to take control of the House with the coming midterm elections.


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