Jen Psaki locates Joe Rogan and Theo Von in the "right-wing ecosystem," but Jon Stewart isn't having it.

Jen Psaki says @joerogan and @TheoVon are in a “right-wing ecosystem” which is “supportive of the Trump enterprise” pic.twitter.com/X4HFhByX6m

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) February 14, 2025

A perfectly good question asked by Jen Psaki, who has a TV show and a written column at MSNBC.

"Could a Trump indictment actually help him politically?"

The headline is good for attracting clicks. It got mine, and I know I'm exacerbating the unwholesome skewing of traffic by linking, but I want to complain that there isn't even an effort to answer the question asked. I guess Psaki brings her presidential press secretary frame of mind to her new job.

The column begins "Don’t freak out" and ends "don’t freak out quite yet."

In between, we're told that Trump can be expected to "weaponize" the indictment for political gain, which just restates the question in the headline. Will the political weaponization of the indictment (if there is one) work? 

There's really nothing more on the topic. A sentence about Trump's poll numbers. A mild quote from Mike Pence referring not to the substance of the indictment but to January 6th — "history will hold Donald Trump accountable." A quote from Chris Sununu:"We’re moving on." As for the effect of criminal charges: "We just don’t know yet." Well, yeah, but where's the analysis? Just "don't freak out" and "Rest assured that I will be following this closely." It doesn't seem like you are.

ADDED: What's really going on here? To say pay no attention to this now means don't talk about it while there's still some time to cry out before it happens. Will the Sunday shows this morning be full of Democrats warning that criminal prosecution is a horrible mistake that will backfire on Democrats (and on everyone else who's keen on stopping Trump)? Or will they all have gotten the memo that we read in Psaki's column: Nothing to see here; the prosecution of Trump is not political, but Trump, if indicted, will politicize it, and we'll just have to wait and see how far that takes him. 

"When the Trump-era press secretaries Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany joined Fox News, liberals cried foul about a 'revolving door'..."

"... and claimed the Murdoch-owned network was an extension of the Trump White House. Those voices have said little about Ms. Psaki’s migration to MSNBC, nor that of another Biden White House alumna, Symone D. Sanders, who also hosts a weekend show on the channel. For her part, Ms. Psaki said MSNBC viewers can expect to see her authentic self — and that 'I am not going on television to be a mouthpiece.'"

From "Jen Psaki, Once the Voice of Biden, Moves to an Anchor Chair The former White House press secretary will start hosting a weekly MSNBC talk show on March 19. As for the president, “I am not going to gratuitously attack him'" (NYT).

"The Secret Service says it checked again and still can’t find any records that identify visitors to President Biden’s Delaware residences — where he has spent roughly one-fourth of his presidency...."

The New York Post reports on its Freedom of Information request. 

“If the Secret Service is doing its job, there has to be visitor records,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “If there aren’t any records, the scandal is much bigger than just a lack of transparency.”

"White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday on Twitter that President Biden abhors 'violence, threats, or vandalism,' and that judges 'must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety.'"

"This was a welcome clarification of the noncommittal statement Ms. Psaki made Friday. A Montgomery County ordinance permits protest marches in residential areas but bars stationary gatherings, arguably such as those in front of the Roberts and Kavanaugh residences. A federal law — 18 U.S.C. Section 1507 — prohibits 'pickets or parades' at any judge’s residence, 'with the intent of influencing' a jurist 'in the discharge of his duty.' These are limited and justifiable restraints on where and how people exercise the right to assembly. Citizens should voluntarily abide by them, in letter and spirit. If not, the relevant governments should take appropriate action."

Writes the Editorial Board of The Washington Post in "Leave the justices alone at home."

One thing the editorial doesn't mention is that this physically threatening activism is detrimental to the abortion rights cause. 

Many, perhaps most, Americans are conflicted about abortion, and this violent or violence-adjacent behavior may make it harder for them — for us — to take refuge in the intellectualized principle of personal autonomy that makes it possible to understand abortion as an individual right. If abortion is just a cause for a battle of wills — if there is violence or the threat of violence — the fact that what is demanded is an entitlement to commit violence against the unborn might draw those who have been so conflicted to the anti-abortion side.

"Secret Service agents were outraged last year by the White House’s attempt to downplay bite injuries caused by then-first dog Major — even trying to get President Biden to personally pay for a damaged coat, newly released documents show."

The NY Post reports in "'Now I’m pissed’: Secret Service agents outraged by White House spin over First Dog bites." 

The records, released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Judicial Watch, show that attacks occurred both earlier and later than previously known. They also show internal discord at the Secret Service, which has been embroiled since last week in a bizarre infiltration scandal that involves at least four agents. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged just one biting incident at a briefing on March 9, 2021, saying that one day earlier “the first family’s younger dog, Major, was surprised by an unfamiliar person and reacted in a way that resulted in a minor injury to the individual.” 

The March 8 bite actually was the final attack in an eight-day streak and the wounded agent — whose injuries were categorized as “severe” by a colleague — fumed about Psaki’s spin. “NO I didn’t surprise the dog doing my job by being at [redacted] as the press secretary just said! Now I’m pissed,” the agent wrote to a coworker....

Asked if Putin is a war criminal, Biden gives a strong solid "no" and walks away. Then he comes back and says, with equal emphasis, "I think he is a war criminal."

 

I saw that at The Washington Post, at "Biden calls Putin a ‘war criminal’/The comment seemed off the cuff and came on a day driven by a forceful speech to Congress by Volodymyr Zelensky." 

The headline doesn't mention that he first said "no," then seems to have thought better of it and came back to change his answer. If anything was "off the cuff," it was the "no." Coming back to say, strongly, "I think he is a war criminal" does not deserve to be called "off the cuff." "Off the cuff" seems like an effort after the fact to minimize the statement.

Squirreled away near the bottom of the WaPo article:

"I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there. This is a no."

Said Joe Manchin, quoted in "Manchin Pulls Support From Biden’s Social Policy Bill, Imperiling Its Passage/'I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,' Mr. Manchin said on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ citing concerns about adding to the national debt" (NYT).

For months, Mr. Manchin had huddled privately with Mr. Biden and his top officials in an attempt to secure a compromise. His objections forced the White House to substantially curtail the scope of the package and remove certain programs, including the creation of a clean electricity program and a plan to ban new oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

As early as last week, even as Mr. Biden confirmed that efforts to pass the legislation had stalled, he waxed optimistic, saying that talks with Mr. Manchin would continue and that he believed that “we will bridge our differences and advance the Build Back Better plan.”...

“They’re just trying to make the adjustment for the time to fit the money or the money to fit the time,” Mr. Manchin said. “Not changing our approach, not targeting things we should be doing.”

UPDATE:  Statement from Press Secretary Jen Psaki:

Senator Manchin’s comments this morning on FOX are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances.... Senator Manchin pledged repeatedly to negotiate on finalizing that framework “in good faith.”... If his comments on FOX and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the President and the Senator’s colleagues in the House and Senate....

So now it's "torture" for children to eat outside when it's 40°?

I'm seeing this over at Instapundit:

Here's the underlying Not the Bee article, showing that the outdoor lunch-eating happened in 40° weather:

Stunning footage circulated around the Internet this week of a school in Portland, Oregon forcing young children to eat their lunches outside, in 40-degree weather, on buckets, because school administrators were afraid of a COVID outbreak or something.

The kids had coats on. Outdoor eating is healthy. Hardiness is good! I remember when the right mocked the left for making kids into "snowflakes." 

"Snowflakes" is a bad metaphor for this issue — since real snowflakes do better in the cold — but you know what I mean. They melt in heat. Personally, I'd rather sit outside and eat when it's 40° than when it's 90°, but yeah, temperatures vary, and we need to adapt to the weather as it cycles around. Kids are strong and resilient. They even play in snow until their cheeks turn rosy. If you let them.

There's no way this outdoor lunch is torture or child abuse.

ADDED: "How to plan a snow picnic."

AND: The coolest kids are into snow picnics:

It was a special time, we had a President who was crazy, and General Milley's behavior must be understood in that context.

I'm paraphrasing the pro-Milley argument to be found in "Press Secretary Jen Psaki White House Press Conference Transcript September 15":

Jonathan: ... A new book reports that near the end of the Trump presidency, Chairman Milley had two conversations with his Chinese counterpart promising the countries would not go to war and that he would give an early warning if something were to happen. In a statement just minutes ago, Chairman Milley did not dispute this account. On this, does the president feel that these calls were appropriate? Does he have confidence in the chairman? And some Republican senators have called for Chairman Milley to be dismissed. Is he going to keep his job? 

"Psaki grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut—but not exactly that Greenwich. 'There’s a lot of hippie vibe in my family,' she tells me."

"She’s the oldest of three daughters: Her youngest sister, a Unitarian Universalist minister, does indeed send out hippie vibrations, as does her mother, a therapist who grew up in blue-collar Queens. Psaki’s father, a retired real estate developer, declared bankruptcy when she was in seventh grade.... For the most part, Psaki was focused on her high school swim team—she had a powerful backstroke—and, later, on her sorority, Chi Omega at the College of William & Mary. She was the president, but then, as now, she didn’t seem to want to be the center of attention. 'She’s an under-the-radar leader,' her college roommate, Ally Wagner, tells me. Psaki quit the college swim team after two years but stayed 'crazy athletic,' Wagner says. Katie McCormick Lelyveld, who got to know Psaki early in her career, describes her as 'a deeply devoted friend,' and despite her work ethic, 'she knows how to relax and laugh, and she likes a dance party.' As for the music, 'she’s a Top 40 girl,' McCormick Lelyveld says. But not current stuff. 'The music that was popular during her 20s and 30s.' She mentions the CD compilations Now That’s What I Call Music."

From "Press Secretary Jen Psaki is Good At Mending Fences. Just Don’t Call Her Nice" by Lizzie Widdicombe (Vogue).

I had to look up "Now That's What I Call Music." It's basically a U.K. series, each CD containing the songs that were hits when it was issued. There's only one U.S. CD with that branding. It came out in 1998 when Psaki was 20. 

There she was in college, distinguished by her love of Top 40 hits, at a time when that meant "MMMBop" and "Barbie Girl"...

 

I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world/Life in plastic, it's fantastic/You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere/Imagination, life is your creation.... Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please/I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees...

ADDED: I misread the Wikipedia page I linked to, which is about the first "Now That's What I Call Music" release in the United States. The series does continue, and, as you can see here, goes up to volume 79, which just came out a few days ago, so I guess we can expect a lot more. I'm proud of this mistake because it means I successfully shielded myself from the advertising. Deliberately annoying crap like this:

Jen Psaki says "we created this problem" — the problem on the southern border.

This is a strange little gaffe — or slipping out of the truth — from yesterday's White House Press Conference. 

You can hear it in the clip...

... and see it in the transcript: 

"Major, who is 3 years old, is the younger of the two Biden dogs, and has been known to display agitated behavior on multiple occasions, including jumping, barking, and 'charging' at staff and security..."

"... according to the people CNN spoke with about the dog's demeanor at the White House."

From "Biden's German Shepherd has aggressive incident and is sent back to Delaware" (CNN). We talked about this yesterday, with the same link, but this is newly updated, published just a few minutes ago. What I've quoted was not part of the article yesterday. 

Also new:

Psaki at Tuesday's press briefing said the trip to Delaware by the family dogs was "previously planned already," and that they were being cared for there by "family friends." Psaki did not say when exactly the dogs might return to the White House, only that it will be "soon." The first lady departed Monday afternoon for a two-day trip to Washington and California to visit military bases and is expected to return to the White House on Wednesday. 

First, I don't believe Psaki. Second, notice that last sentence and what it indicates that is not said directly: The dog is Jill's. But they certainly dearly want us to believe that Biden is a man with dogs. 

Remember when Barbra Streisand criticized Trump for not having a dog: "How does the president not have a dog? He’s the first president in 120 years that doesn’t have a dog in the White House." 

 Trump's reaction was that it would be phony for him to be walking around the White House with a dog. 

The explanation came amid an extended riff about the superior abilities of German shepherds to sniff out drugs being smuggled across the border. “You do love your dogs, don’t you?” Trump said, as the crowd whistled and cheered. “I wouldn’t mind having one, honestly, but I don’t have any time. How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn?” 

“I don’t know, I don’t feel good,” he said. “Feels a little phony to me.” A lot of people had told him to get a dog because it would look good politically, he added, but he hadn’t felt the need because “that’s not the relationship I have with my people.” 

But it is, apparently, the relationship Biden has with the people — whoever they are — who are his. The dog, however, didn't get the memo.

Press coverage of Dr. Seuss, worn at a slant.

I was reading this Vox piece, "Meltdown over Dr. Seuss/Biden didn’t mention Dr. Seuss in his Read Across America Day statement. All hell broke loose from there," and of course, I could see from the title the piece was massively slanted... 

Oh! Maybe I shouldn't use the word "slant" in the vicinity of the Dr. Seuss dispute. It's the worst word he ever used. Oh, no, it's not cute:

That's from "If I Ran the Zoo," a 1950 book that Dr. Seuss enterprises has just withdrawn from publication.  

Vox writes its article at a slant on a website where everything must be a rant. I'm not staying there long. I won't and I can't. But I noticed this one thing that seemed slightly wacky — a press conference question aimed at poor Jen Psaki:

Psaki's "circle back" tic is funny, but just her way of saying "get back."

 

"I'll have to circle back to you" is really no different from "I'll have to get back to you," a common thing for a press secretary to say. But it does stick out and seem goofy. And the connotation is evasive, because of the idea of circling around a subject or being circuitous. 

I think her "circle back" is like Jeb Bush's "garner," which I've been making fun of for years. Jeb said the word "garner" way too much. The first time I blogged about that, I wrote:

He simpers and nods to the point where Meade and I just laugh at him. It's an in-joke for us that he keeps saying the word "garner."... The only reason to say "garner" is if you think there's something wrong with a very common word that normal people just go ahead and say all the time without thinking they need to rise above it. The word is: "get."

I believe the same thing is going on with Psaki. She thinks there's something wrong with the word "get." That's why she's not just saying "I'll have to get back to you" like most English-speaking Americans.