Psaki hints ever so slightly at her frustration with the obnoxious bro culture that pervaded the Obama administration, specifically regarding the promotion (at her expense) of Josh Earnest to White House press secretary in 2014. Ironically, it was Ben Rhodes, the consummate Obama bro, who consoled her. Rhodes, whom Psaki describes as her “work husband,” is best known for bragging about manipulating journalists who “literally know nothing” into supporting the Iran nuclear deal. It would have been interesting to read about how Psaki helped him do this. If only she weren’t professionally obligated to only say nice things about Democrats. (Barack Obama, of course, is “legitimately brilliant and uniquely thoughtful.”)
We weren’t kidding about Hillary Clinton earlier. Maybe it’s because Psaki is also a ruthlessly ambitious, charisma-challenged nerd from the Midwest. Their rhetoric is strikingly similar. We couldn’t help but imagine Hillary’s voice reading Psaki’s words on the campaign trail in between cackles. For example: “I’ve had to communicate to the American public when there were huge, global stakes, and I’ve had to try to explain to a toddler why he should give up his pacifier when he really doesn’t want to.” It’s a line that could have been lifted directly from one of Hillary’s stump speeches about how being a grandmother is almost as hard as standing up to Vladimir Pu—Zzzzz.
Then there’s the Hillary-esque lack of self-awareness. For instance, Psaki describes the challenge of getting through to an audience that “doesn’t have any interest in learning something they didn’t know, or even having their views challenged.” Of course, this is not a problem that applies to her, a host on MSNBC, a place where liberal anxiety junkies go to get their fill of hot takes about how Donald Trump is “paving the way … to become an Adolf Hitler.” She’s a real journalist. (LOL.)
