MSNBC host and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki was grilled by journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher Monday about the lack of Republican guests on her namesake MSNBC program, “Inside With Jen Psaki”
In an interview published Monday, Swisher and Psaki spoke about the show and the current state of American politics. During the conversation, Swisher pointed out that the first four episodes of “Inside” have only featured Democrats.
“Hakeem Jeffries was your first guest. You spoke with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in your first episode. Those are all Democrats. Do you think about putting more Republicans on?” Swisher asked.
“Yes, I’m all for it. Governors — members of Congress,” Psaki replied.
Swisher proceeded to ask her what the problem is, to which Psaki responded that there wasn’t one and her team has had conversations with a “number of Republicans.”
“I do wanna have Republicans on the show,” she said. “They have to agree and feel comfortable coming on the show and I also understand that, too. You kind of have to prove that you’re gonna have a real valid conversation, you’re gonna ask them tough questions as you would ask others but you’re also gonna hear them out. I’ve only had four shows, so I don’t know that we’re like a full totality yet, but I do and I will and would like to have Republicans on.”
Swisher then asked Psaki to name examples of Republicans she would ideally like to have on the show.
“I’d love to have Mitt Romney on. I’d love to have Mike McCaul, the Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee. I’d love to have, I mean, listen, if Kevin McCarthy wants to come on the show, I have a lot of questions for him,” Psaki said.
“I’m not really afraid of being a forum for propaganda, cause I’m gonna call that out,” she added. “But I know there’s certain people who are not gonna come on the show and that’s fine, in all likelihood. But I do think a healthy part of not just democracy, but frankly not to be old school about government — is having disagreements and having discussions and trying to understand why the other person believes how they believe.”
Swisher then threw a name in the hat herself: Jim Jordan, a proposition which Psaki said she’d be open to.
“I also have called him out for the fact that he hasn’t exactly had a lot of success in his pursuit of weaponization of the government subcommittee,” she said. “I don’t know if you’re Jim Jordan’s press people why you would come on my show.”
Last month, Psaki’s show scored an impressive debut with 1.1 million viewers tuning in to its premiere episode, nearly doubling CNN’s audience in the time slot.
It also nabbed the No. 1 spot in the key cable demographic among adults 25-54 with 137,000 viewers on the demo on average, according to Nielsen live plus same-day figures.
“Inside With Jen Psaki” airs Sundays at 9 a.m. PT. Swisher’s full interview with Psaki is available here.
