White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is in advanced talks to leave the Biden administration and join MSNBC, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Psaki is expected to depart the White House later this spring, perhaps as early as next month.
While her deal with MSNBC is not finalized, it is expected that she will host a program for MSNBC’s streaming hub on Peacock, and will appear across MSNBC programming as an analyst.
Axios first reported Psaki’s MSNBC deal, noting that she was working with White House lawyers to make sure the talks with MSNBC didn’t violate ethics rules. An MSNBC spokesperson declined to comment.
During Friday’s White House press briefing, Psaki was grilled about the talks with MSNBC by reporters in the briefing room.
“I have nothing to confirm about my length of public service, or my planned service,” Psaki said when asked about the report. “I am very happy to be standing here today, my focus every day continues to be speaking on behalf of the president,” she added. “At whatever time I leave the White House, I can promise you the first thing I am going to do is sleep, and spend time with my 3- and 6-year-olds.”
However, she was questioned in multiple follow-ups about the ethics of briefing reporters while also talking to a news outlet for a paid role.
“I have always gone over and above the stringent legal requirements of the Biden administration, and I take that seriously,” Psaki said, adding that she has “taken steps to recuse myself from decisions as appropriate.”
Earlier this year, MSNBC hired Symone Sanders, who had been the chief spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris, to host a show for Peacock and a weekend program on the linear channel. Sanders’ show is set to debut May 7. Assuming Psaki’s deal gets signed, MSNBC will have hired the pubic faces of both President Biden and Vice President Harris in the span of just a couple of months.
Psaki has been press secretary since Biden took office in January 2021, and brought back the tradition of daily on-camera briefings for reporters, which became far less frequent during the Trump administration. She had been taking meetings with multiple networks in recent months, including CNN, but MSNBC appears to have made the most compelling pitch. “You can’t get rid of me quite yet,” she quipped when asked in the briefing room at the end of February whether she had plans to leave the White House.
White House press officials have long shuttled between the briefing room and paid roles for TV news channels. Two of Trump’s former press secretaries, Kayleigh McEnany and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have served as Fox News contributors, while Sean Spicer hosts a show for Newsmax. Obama’s former press secretary Robert Gibbs worked for MSNBC and NBC News as a contributor, while two of Bush’s former press secretaries, Tony Snow and Dana Perino, would go on to host shows for Fox News.
It isn’t yet clear whether Psaki is following the path laid by Perino and George Stephanopoulos, who worked in President Clinton’s press office, and refashioned their careers as journalists, or whether she will take the Gibbs and Spicer route, continuing to advocate for policies consistent with her work in the administration.
Psaki’s hiring, assuming it gets done, will also mark the next phase of jockeying by TV news outlets for contributors that can be relevant for the 2024 election. CBS announced the hiring of former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney earlier this week, in a similar move.
Updated 12:25 with comments made during Friday press briefing.
Source: Hollywood
