Monday on MS NOW’s The Briefing, host Jen Psaki used former President Barack Obama’s remarks on corruption and accountability to not only criticize President Trump, but demand Americans flip “the circuit breaker” on corrupt government, akin to Serbia’s regime.
Psaki first referenced Obama’s accusation of Trump and his allies of putting their own interests ahead of the country, arguing that the President’s personal business interests and focus on himself came at the public’s expense (Click “expand”):
Now, there is one thing he does seem to focus on in addition to home renovation, and that is how to enrich himself and his family and his cronies.
(...)
We have never seen a president excel so wildly and just straight up grifting on your dime. Never seen a president so intent on selling favors and shaking folks down. We have lost count of all the deals he and his family have done, from meme coins to taxpayer funded contracts for his kids' companies. And this is someone who has become billions of dollars wealthier in office.
Psaki then cited Obama’s comments about accountability, including his argument that the country needed to confront corruption and hold the administration responsible for its actions:
This election is our last, best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration. It's the circuit breaker in the system. We need to flip that circuit breaker. We need to start bringing some accountability to this administration.
But Psaki didn’t stop at Obama’s accusations against Trump. Instead, she broadened out to warn about corrupt governments and autocratic leaders, arguing that citizens may not know what will finally push people to act:
And when you have a corrupt government, when you have an autocratic leader who is enriching himself and his family and friends off the government he leads, you don't always know what the breaking point is going to be. Sometimes it's not what you expect. You don't always know when the country is going to finally feel so overloaded that the circuit breaker activates.
Psaki then pivoted to Serbia, where a deadly railway station canopy collapse killed 16 people and sparked widespread protests against the government of Aleksandar Vučić, eventually leading to government leader to be overthrown (Click “expand”):
For instance, did you see the scenes in Serbia yesterday? These were the giant, joyful– look at those scenes, celebrations in Serbia last night after the country's tyrant, Aleksandar Vučić was ousted after 14 years in power. He and his party were toppled in parliamentary elections by a slate of mostly brand new candidates, not people who had been planning to run for office forever, everyone.
Professors, scientists, doctors, workers, actors, activists. They all began coming together, by the way, it wasn't just that it started a few months ago. They began coming together around a student-led protest movement that started a couple years ago…
(...)
And that might not sound like a political event. It is a tragedy, but it might not sound like something that would start a movement. But this was a new station built as part of one of that strongman leader's signature infrastructure projects. And Vucic and his party, like all authoritarian governments, were astonishingly corrupt. Does this sound familiar, everybody?
Psaki then connected Obama’s language to fire off a launch pad of hyperbole about the same warning signs being evident in the U.S.:
Authoritarian government is corrupt government, and corrupt government, like the one we're living through now, is bad government. And democracy, on its best days, people participating in the process, can be the circuit breaker that stops it.
Psaki wasn’t just discussing the political unrest in Serbia, she presented the protests as a cautionary parallel for Americans.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read.
MS NOW’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki
October 26, 2026
9:07:52 p.m. Eastern(...)
JEN PSAKI: …But while they were getting all spun up about that, Trump and his allies seemed to have missed what Obama said next. And this was the key part, the reason he brought up Trump's gold redecorating spree in the first place, which is that Trump is focused only on himself and all his corruption, cartoonish as it is, ultimately comes at your expense.
[CUT TO VIDEO]
BARACK OBAMA: Now, there is one thing he does seem to focus on in addition to home renovation, and that is how to enrich himself and his family and his cronies.
[TRANSITION]
OBAMA: We have never seen a president excel so wildly and just straight up grifting on your dime. Never seen a president so intent on selling favors and shaking folks down. We have lost count of all the deals he and his family have done, from meme coins to taxpayer funded contracts for his kids' companies. And this is someone who has become billions of dollars wealthier in office.
[TRANSITION]
OBAMA: This election is our last, best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration. It's the circuit breaker in the system. We need to flip that circuit breaker. We need to start bringing some accountability to this administration.
[END OF VIDEO]
(...)
9:09:36 p.m. Eastern
PSAKI: And when you have a corrupt government, when you have an autocratic leader who is enriching himself and his family and friends off the government he leads, you don't always know what the breaking point is going to be. Sometimes it's not what you expect. You don't always know when the country is going to finally feel so overloaded that the circuit breaker activates.
For instance, did you see the scenes in Serbia yesterday? These were the giant, joyful– look at those scenes, celebrations in Serbia last night after the country's tyrant, Aleksandar Vučić was ousted after 14 years in power. He and his party were toppled in parliamentary elections by a slate of mostly brand new candidates, not people who had been planning to run for office forever, everyone.
Professors, scientists, doctors, workers, actors, activists. They all began coming together, by the way, it wasn't just that it started a few months ago. They began coming together around a student-led protest movement that started a couple years ago, and it all started after a disaster at a Serbian train station. A concrete canopy at the station collapsed, killing 16 people.
And that might not sound like a political event. It is a tragedy, but it might not sound like something that would start a movement. But this was a new station built as part of one of that strongman leader's signature infrastructure projects. And Vucic and his party, like all authoritarian governments, were astonishingly corrupt. Does this sound familiar, everybody?
And a lot of people in Serbia, quite reasonably, concluded that if that rail station had been built by a good, responsible, not corrupt government, it would have been built properly. But because it was built by an allegedly corrupt and autocratic regime, there was every reason to believe that the contractors were not the best or not the safest builders. Did not have the people of Serbia who would be using that train station in mind. They were just the folks who knew where to put the bright bribe.
And within a few months of that awful train station disaster, Serbia saw its biggest anti-government protest ever. For two years, the movement that started with that one galvanizing event grew. They protested, they organized. They put together a slate of candidates to take on the government. And their slogan against the corrupt regime was Serbia or the mafia. And yesterday they won.
They won so overwhelmingly, so decisively in such large numbers. The tyrant they defeated was powerless to stop it or rig it or pretend he had won. He came out early in the evening and conceded. Because after 14 years of increasingly autocratic rule, he finally tripped the circuit breaker.
Authoritarian government is corrupt government, and corrupt government, like the one we're living through now, is bad government. And democracy, on its best days, people participating in the process, can be the circuit breaker that stops it.
(...)
