“More and more of the questions in there are by sycophants, are by people who are not asking about news that the American people cares about.”
Jen Psaki and Katie Couric criticized the current state of questioning inside the White House briefing room, saying many reporters are “sycophants” who do not ask tough enough questions of the president or the press secretary.
Psaki made the comments while joining Couric’s Substack Live last week. The former Biden press secretary accused the Trump administration of reducing the number of reporters who ask difficult questions.
“More and more of the questions in there are by sycophants, are by people who are not asking about news that the American people cares about,” she said, adding that some of these reporters are promoting “conspiracy theories.”
After taking office, the Trump administration made several changes to who could attend White House briefings, opening the room to more conservative and alternative outlets it argued had been underrepresented in previous administrations. Psaki, however, claimed the current press corps is becoming “Kremlin-esque.”
“They are getting a lot of the questions. There are some of the people who are in the press pools. This means that reporters who are there to cover [Mohammed bin Salman] being at the White House or to cover Zelensky being at the White House or to ask these questions that Mary Bruce fortunately asked yesterday, there are fewer of them. You don’t know that and see that unless you’ve lived there, but that’s a huge, huge problem because it’s becoming more of a Kremlin-esque press corps,” Psaki said
“It does remind me so much when I was at the State Department and I traveled with John Kerry,” she added. “You’d have like the Kremlin press corps. I mean they were the ‘press corps’ from ‘media,’ I’m putting that in quotes. But they literally reported to the Kremlin, following the foreign secretary around and foreign minister around. That’s what I think maybe they want.”
Psaki’s remarks drew quick backlash online from critics who accused her of hypocrisy. Many pointed to a long record of reporters being notably gentle with the Biden administration, including a lack of questions about Biden’s physical and cognitive state while he was president. One of the most cited examples was a reporter asking Joe Biden what his favorite ice cream flavor was.
Libby’s Desk
Commentary and must-reads from Libby’s desk, straight to your inbox.
TPM Newsletter
The Post Millennial’s top stories, delivered to your inbox.
