Jen Psaki, former White House Press Secretary and MS NOW host, weighed in on the Pentagon adding right-wing activists James O’Keefe and Laura Loomer as members of a new White House press corps. amid the exodus of traditional media.
“‘The press corps,’ I’m going to put them in quotes because it includes Laura Loomer and James O’Keefe and this crew — it’s not a real press corps,” Psaki said Thursday night during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” “James O’Keefe who is, you may remember from publishing Ashley Biden’s diary — he’s also in the press corp.”
The conversation comes amid the drama surrounding the restraints the Trump administration has placed on reporters covering the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has required that all news outlets sign a loyalty pledge to report only information authorized by the Department of Defense. This led several outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, and even Fox News, to refuse the agreement and consequently be stripped of their credentials. Now, NYT is suing the Pentagon over the matter.
Watch the clip below.
While discussing how problematic it can be for non-traditional media personalities like O’Keefe and Loomer to have access to the Pentagon, rather than reputable platforms, Psaki said the two came out with no “news” following their recents interviews with Hegseth.
“This week has been quite a week as you outlined in your monologue,” Psaki explained. “Things anyone here, anyone watching might have questions for Pete Hegseth … They had a press briefing with him, where they could ask anything they wanted, and they made no news. No news at all, which is pretty remarkable.”
Earlier in the conversation, Psaki shared that Americans have a right to receive transparency from the all presidential administrations.
“I stood behind podiums for years. I probably did thousands of hours behind podiums … taking real questions,” Psaki said. “Some questions I answered better than others, but I did that because I’m a firm believer, as I think so many Americans are, that the freedom of press, and the fact that the U.S. government has people who stand up there and answer real questions every day, including when they’re tough questions, when the administration needs to be held to account — Democrats and Republicans — that’s a part of our democracy.”
She added: “Even on days where I would walk out there and curse under my breath and know I was about to get a verbal beating from the press corps, it’s still such an important part of what we do.”
