Rep. Adelita Grijalva, now official a member of Congress after waiting 50 days for Republican House Speaker to agree to swear her into office, talks with Jen Psaki about how Johnson's obstruction "has highlighted the corruption," and the need for a law that requires new members be seated promptly without relying on the good faith of the House speaker. Jess Michaels, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse, talks with Jen Psaki and Rep. Adelita Grijalva about what it means that there are now enough...
Nov 13, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202511129
Jen Psaki reacts to the collapse of Democratic resistance in the shutdown fight and the fact that no Democratic Senate candidates support the deal, while Republicans remain in abject disarray. The angry reaction to the Trump administration's poorly conceived economic ideas, including a 50-year mortgage that is seen as a gift to big banks, has Donald Trump scrambling even with his own base. Stephanie Ruhle joins Jen Psaki to talk about why the Trump administration's ideas are impractical. Jen Psa...
Nov 12, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202511119
Jen Psaki looks at Donald Trump's callous disregard for Americans who are struggling to cover living costs while he learns that "affordability" is an important political buzzword but all of his policies only make things more expensive. Senator Ruben Gallego talks with Jen Psaki about the Republicans' cruel leverage tactics in the fight to manipulate Democrats into supporting a budget that will hurt tens of millions of people. Republicans have set up the argument to pit people who need food assis...
Nov 08, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202511079
Jen Psaki looks at some bizarre Republican hot takes explaining their poor performance in this week's elections, with addressing the cost of living in America coming almost as an afterthought. Jen Psaki reports on the lengths Donald Trump's weaponized Justice Department went to in order to try to make an example of Sean Dunn, a Washington, D.C. resident who threw a sandwich at a Border Patrol officer. But in the end the jury would not play along and found Dunn not guilty. Morris Katz, a senior a...
Nov 07, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202511069
In the aftermath of an Election Day disaster, Donald Trump struggled to accept the reality of the fallout from his painful policies, though he did at least acknowledge that the shutdown of the federal government weighed against Republicans. Senator Chris Murphy joins Jen Psaki to discuss whether the clear message from voters is enough to motivate Republicans to re-open the government. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro talks with Jen Psaki about the Democrats' resounding victories in the first e...
Nov 06, 2025•42 min•Ep. 202511059
Jen Psaki offers a special preview of Tuesday's elections, including the important race for governor of Virginia with Jen Palmieri, former communications director for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Larry Sabato, director fo the University of Virginia Center for Politics, and political analyst Anthony Coley. Jim DeBoo, senior advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom, joins for a special focus on Prop 50 redistricting in California. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander discusses the energy and appeal ...
Nov 03, 2025•42 min•Ep. 202511029
Jen Psaki shows Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Vice President JD Vance explaining out loud that the reason they don't want to fund food assistance to millions of Americans is because if they do, Democrats will have even less incentive to vote for the Republicans' budget bill, in effect admitting that they're deliberately causing pain to people they know Democrats care about as leverage to get their way on a bad budget bill. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries talks with Jen Psaki ...
Oct 31, 2025•42 min•Ep. 202510309
Jen Psaki shares reporting on the suspension of two federal prosecutors after they submitted a sentencing recommendation for January 6 rioter Taylor Taranto after his conviction on charges unrelated to the insurrection. The recommendation was refiled with alterations made in the references to January 6 and Donald Trump. Jen Psaki relays reporting from "Retribution," the new book from Jonathan Karl, ABC News chief White House correspondent, which offers a look behind the scenes at how Donald Trum...
Oct 30, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510299
The Maine Senate race was rocked this month when revelations about the Democratic frontrunner Graham Platner threatened to completely upend the Democratic primary to select a candidate to try to unseat Susan Collins. Jen Psaki had Platner back on The Briefing to ask him directly about past offensive internet comments, a tattoo identified as being associated with Nazism and the state of his campaign in the wake of a tumultuous month. Graham Platner, an upstart outsider who appears to still be lea...
Oct 29, 2025•40 min•Ep. 202510289
In a move seen as a test run for intimidation tactics during the midterm elections, Donald Trump is reportedly sending poll watchers to a few polling places around the United States. Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at UCLA, explains why the steps Trump is taking this year may only be a dress rehearsal for how he intends to disrupt the 2026 election which could cost him control of Congress. Even though incompetence and corruption are endemic in the Trump administration and can ...
Oct 25, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510249
Jen Psaki observes that as Donald Trump gets more comfortable with his autocrat persona, the traits that made him a societal laughing stock all his life are coming to define his leadership style. And the mockery he has become has so diminished him that his opponents are emboldened to get in the way of his demolition of the United States. Donald Trump's lackeys in Congress are trying to support his effort to exact revenge on the public servants who tried to hold him to account. Former special cou...
Oct 24, 2025•42 min•Ep. 202510239
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. Rep. Jamie Raskin explains the maneuver Donald Trump is trying to pull off by getting the lawyers he installed at the top of the DOJ to agree to have the Justice Department pay him $230 million, the laws Trump is trampling, as well as wh...
Oct 23, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510229
It has been weeks since Adelita Grijalva was elected to represent Arizona's 7th congressional district in Congress, but because Grijalva would represent the deciding vote to force a vote on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files, Mike Johnson has found every excuse he can to postpone swearing Grijalva into office so she can officially begin work on behalf of her constituents. Now Arizona is out of patience and has sued Johnson directly for denying representation in Congress to th...
Oct 22, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510219
Ahead of the premiere of her new documentary, "Andrew Young: The Dirty Work," Rachel Maddow talks with Jen Psaki about parallels between the activism of the civil rights movement and the anti-Trump "No Kings" protests that are sweeping the nation. As Donald Trump continues to push his anti-immigrant agenda, viral videos of ICE agents abusing people have steadily increased in number, prompting a growing public outcry for accountability for agents terrorizing neighborhoods and breaking local laws....
Oct 17, 2025•44 min•Ep. 202510169
Jen Psaki looks at ways Republicans are trying to avoid accountability for Donald Trump's failures by rigging the election system to take power away from voters who would reject them. As the federal government shutdown drags on, House Speaker Mike Johnson does not appear motivated to use his uniquely powerful position to resolve the crisis. Nor does he seem inclined to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva who recently won a special election. Grijalva and Rep. Robert Garcia talk with Jen Psaki ab...
Oct 16, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510159
Jen Psaki is on a mission to show us how the Democratic party can use this political moment to fight and win again. On Season 2 of her podcast, “The Blueprint,” she interviews the people reshaping the party, starting with Texas Congressman Greg Casar, Chair of the Progressive Caucus. The first two episodes of “The Blueprint with Jen Psaki” are available now, and will continue to drop every Wednesday, from now through mid-November. Stay right here to listen to a special preview. And for the full ...
Oct 15, 2025•7 min
Jen Psaki looks at the myriad conflicts of interest and outright corruption by the Trump administration while taxpayers foot the bill for his self-serving deals and federal workers scramble to live without getting paid because of Trump's government shutdown. Jen Psaki points out how the combination of Donald Trump's poor sourcing of information and weak comprehension skills suggest he doesn't understand what is happening in his own administration. But when the facts are self-evident, perhaps a m...
Oct 15, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510149
Jen Psaki shares reporting from ABC News that the indictment of New York Attorney General Lititia James by Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan caught Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, off guard, raising questions about whether she has fallen from Trump's favor despite her devotion and sycophancy. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse joins to discuss Bondi's job performance and why she may have been left out of the loop on such a prominent case that is so important to Trump. Jen Psaki...
Oct 11, 2025•43 min•Ep. 202510109
With the indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James by Donald Trump's Justice Department, Trump's pattern of political prosecutions is undeniable. Rep. Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, talks with Jen Psaki about the damage Trump's malicious prosecutions are doing to the U.S. legal system, and why it's more important that ever for members of the legal community to defend the rule of law from Donald Trump's abuses and distortions. Former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara talks w...
Oct 10, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510099
Jen Psaki shows House Speaker Mike Johnson's pattern of avoiding having to address any issues that might cast Donald Trump in a poor light by pretending they are "not in his lane," not relevant to his position in Congress and therefore he can't speak on them. But when asked about Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl, Johnson wasted no time leaving his lane to speak his mind. New reporting from the Wall Street Journal says that Donald Trump's social media post demanding that Attorney General Pa...
Oct 09, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510089
Jen Psaki points out Attorney General Pam Bondi's strenuous efforts to avoid having to answer for anything happening within the department she leads, which is a problem throughout the Trump administration and is particularly acute in Trump himself, who not only famously refuses to take responsibility for anything but seems to have no real idea what is going on with the things he's supposed to be in charge of. Jacob Soboroff, MSNBC senior national correspondent, reports from the Chicago suburbs a...
Oct 08, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510079
Jen Psaki points out examples of Donald Trump not being aware of what his own administration is doing, or of the fallout of his own actions, raising questions about whether Trump understands the political consequences of the harm he is causing the American people with his shutdown of the federal government. Rep. Dan Goldman joins to discuss. Kat Abughazeleh, Illinois congressional candidate, talks with Jen Psaki about the violence and brutality ICE is inflicting on protesters and members of the ...
Oct 04, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510039
As public displays of Donald Trump's erratic behavior seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity, and the stakes for the fate of the country seem increasingly dire, more public figures are speaking out about whether Trump is not well enough to serve. Rep. Madeleine Dean, who was caught on camera confronting House Speaker Mike Johnson about Trump's condition, talks with Jen Psaki about her concerns. With Donald Trump using the federal government shutdown to allow his OMB director Russel Vou...
Oct 03, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202510029
Jen's Version: Jen Psaki addresses questions raised in the White House briefing room with real answers instead of the Trump administration's distortions and spin, including the bizarre claim that Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is donating his time to world peace by inserting himself into the affairs of countries that have given him billions of dollars. Maryland Governor Wes Moore talks with Jen Psaki about Donald Trump's bizarre presentation to a gathering of U.S. military leadership, i...
Oct 02, 2025•42 min•Ep. 202510019
As the federal government heads into shutdown, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries talks with Jen Psaki about Democrats' openness to bipartisan negotiations but criticizes his Republican colleagues for using a "reckless rubber stamp" when it comes to Donald Trump. Donald Trump's secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, summoned all of the U.S. military's top leadership to an extremely unusual meeting in Quantico, Virginia, only to subject them to weird, self-indulgent speeches from Hegseth and Trump....
Oct 01, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202509309
George Conway, president of the Society for the Rule of Law, and Liz Oyer, former Department of Justice pardon attorney, talk with Jen Psaki about the myriad flaws and shortfalls in the Trump Justice Department's case against former FBI director James Comey. New files turned over from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein to the investigators with the House Oversight Committee contain the names of close associates of Donald Trump. Rep. Ro Khanna talks with Jen Psaki about the ongoing pressure campaign t...
Sep 27, 2025•40 min•Ep. 202509269
Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann talks with Jen Psaki about the legal issues inherent in the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, and the procedural steps that have been skipped in Donald Trump's rush to have his political enemies prosecuted. Weissmann points out that having a trial that gives Comey a platform to mount a defense may be a move Donald Trump comes to regret. Senator Tim Kaine talks with Jen Psaki about the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, and what ...
Sep 26, 2025•43 min•Ep. 202509259
While it was generally understood that Donald Trump's installation of his own personal lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, as U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia to replace the abruptly departed Erik Siebert, was related to his stated desire that his personal enemies be criminally prosecuted, it wasn't entirely clear until today's MSNBC report on the expectation of an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey what was really going on. Jen Psaki reports on Trump's disdain for Comey and hi...
Sep 25, 2025•41 min•Ep. 202509249
Donald Trump managed to take it personally when an escalator at the UN General Assembly stopped working while he was on it. Jen Psaki takes the opportunity to observe another instance of the "Donald Trump rage cycle," and points out that the thin-skinned president's petty tyrades are less intimidating the more people learn to stand up to him. Jen Psaki revisits MSNBC reporting from the weekend about the FBI investigating Trump border czar Tom Homan until the investigation was suddenly dropped, a...
Sep 24, 2025•40 min•Ep. 202509239
Jen Psaki reports on the negative reactions of some surprising Republicans to the Trump administration's use of political intimidation to silence Donald Trump's critics. Along with the few Republicans who have opposed Trump on covering up Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, the unquestioning obedience Trump enjoys from his party may be showing cracks. To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.ad...
Sep 20, 2025•42 min•Ep. 202509199
