White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to answer on Sunday what it was like to be made fun of by Trevor Noah during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last week.
During an interview on Fox News with host Howard Kurtz, Psaki also repeatedly tried to downplay President Joe Biden’s (D) lack of media interviews and press conferences, claiming that he “speaks to the American people nearly every day.”
Psaki tried to dismiss the negative news cycles that the administration faces, saying, “We can’t determine what the media decides to cover, of course, that’s not our role. We’re not in China and Russia.”
Later in the interview, Psaki was asked about what it was like being made fun of by Noah last week when he brought up her apparent upcoming move over to MSNBC.
“The word on the streets is actually that Jen Psaki is going to MSNBC next month,” Noah said. “Apparently, just being on CSPAN, the ratings were too high and she wanted more of a challenge. Wanted to switch things up. She can’t laugh at that. Don’t put the camera on her. If it’s true, congratulations to Jen on your big career change. But, moving to MSNBC is going to be a big switch up for you because right now your current job is to make the Biden administration look as good as possible at all costs. Now, you’re going to be at MSNBC and you’re going to have to… You’ll be fine actually. Sorry.”
“Well, I have nothing to say about what I am going to do in the future, aside from it’s now been announced that I will be departing the White House next week, I have a lot of emotions about that,” Psaki responded. “They’re all filled together at once. I’m going to sleep. I’m going to read a lot of books. I’m going to watch a lot of movies I haven’t seen. What I will say is that you couldn’t have done my job. I don’t think anybody could do this job as White House press secretary if they didn’t value the role of the press and the media. And I do. Even on days where we disagree, on days we debate.”
Psaki later claimed that she was a good sport about being made fun of by Noah.