Wrapping up a friendly chat with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday, CBS This Morning co-host and Democratic Party donor Gayle King urged the Biden administration flack to ‘grade’ the President’s first 100 days in office. Even Psaki realized how embarrassing the question was and refused to respond, despite King’s repeated insistence.
The softball interview with Psaki came just hours ahead of President Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress, as King asked: “Jen, 100 days, big, big speech tonight. I’m sure you guys are still dotting the ‘I’s and crossing the ‘T’s. What grade are you giving yourselves – I know it’s early – what grade are you giving yourselves in the first 100 days?”
Rather than just declare an A+ and call it day, Psaki at least had the self-awareness not to grade herself or her boss: “On the first 100 days, look, Gayle, I will let others grade.” After she recited more talking points about Biden administration accomplishments, King chimed in: “Okay, then give yourself a grade, Jen – give yourself a grade.”
Psaki continued to dodge the obsequious question: “Well, I’m not here to give grades. I’ll let others give us grades, Gayle.” She even laughably told the CBS hosts: “But you guys can give us grades.” Gee, what grade would someone like King hand out?
At the top of the exchange, King touted a “big night for team Biden” before beginning the interview by lamenting Republican opposition to the President’s tax and spend proposals: “But let’s start with raising the taxes on the wealthy....On paper, you don’t appear to have GOP support for that. So how will you guys pull that off? You need the GOP support.”
In a follow-up, rather than ask whether Biden was prepared to compromise, King instead wondered whether any Republicans were being “helpful” to Democrats:
We keep hearing that there are meetings behind the scenes between Republicans and Democrats. Joe Biden said he wanted to be a unifier. So far people say that’s not working out so well. Are there any Republicans you can single out who you say, behind the scenes, are really being very helpful in this?
During a series of questions about the pandemic response, fellow co-host Tony Dokoupil asked if the administration should even bother worrying about Republicans getting vaccinated:
Jen, we and other networks keep talking about how there’s a core group of people who are not intending to get vaccinated, and disproportionately those are Republicans. In our poll, it was about 30% of Republicans say they do not intend to get vaccinated. Is there a plan to bring them on board? Or when you look at the numbers, is the mathematical reality you just don’t need them?
When it comes to grading the performance of elected officials, the media give their allies in the Democratic Party all the answers to the test and then ask them to give themselves whatever grade they think is fair.
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Here is a transcript of the April 28 questions to Psaki:
7:06 AM ET
GAYLE KING: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki joins us to bring us up to date on the latest, what they’re talking about in the Biden White House. Listen, Jen, I know this is going to be a very long day for you, but something tells me you like long days. So we thank you for taking the time.
JEN PSAKI: I do, Gayle. And the little secret is I’m wearing comfortable shoes right now, you can’t see them. But it’s a big day here at the White House, no question.
KING: I know, big night for team Biden. But let’s start with raising the taxes on the wealthy. I can envision a lot of wealthy people, Jen, right now going, “Huh, come again, what did you say?” On paper, you don’t appear to have GOP support for that. So how will you guys pull that off? You need the GOP support.
(...)
KING: We keep hearing that there are meetings behind the scenes between Republicans and Democrats. Joe Biden said he wanted to be a unifier. So far people say that’s not working out so well. Are there any Republicans you can single out who you say, behind the scenes, are really being very helpful in this?
(...)
TONY DOKOUPIL: Jen, I want to shift gears to the fight against the coronavirus. The rate of daily vaccinations in America has fallen in recent days, down to about 2.7 million from a high of 3.4. Are we falling off track? In other words, are we still on track for a July 4th return to normalcy, as the White House would hope?
(...)
DOKOUPIL: Jen, we and other networks keep talking about how there’s a core group of people who are not intending to get vaccinated, and disproportionately those are Republicans. In our poll, it was about 30% of Republicans say they do not intend to get vaccinated. Is there a plan to bring them on board? Or when you look at the numbers, is the mathematical reality you just don’t need them?
(...)
DOKOUPIL: Yeah. Hey, Jen, when it comes to money, right now the federal government is footing the bill for every single vaccine for every American. But we keep hearing about booster shots in years to come. Is the government going to pay indefinitely? Or is there going to be a point at which it stops?
(...)
KING: Jen, 100 days, big, big speech tonight. I’m sure you guys are still dotting the ‘I’s and crossing the ‘T’s. What grade are you giving yourselves – I know it’s early – what grade are you giving yourselves in the first 100 days?
PSAKI: On the first 100 days, look, Gayle, I will let others grade. But I will tell you that – I will tell you that the President’s focus coming in, all of our focuses was on getting the pandemic under control, putting people back to work. We passed a historic plan, the American Rescue Plan, that’s going to help people with that bridge. But also more than 200 million people, shots have been put into arms. So we feel pretty good about that.
KING: Okay, then give yourself a grade, Jen – give yourself a grade.
PSAKI: Well, I’m not here to give grades. I’ll let others give us grades, Gayle.
KING: Okay.
PSAKI: But you guys can give us grades. But I will say what people will hear from him tonight is not just how far we’ve come, but the fact that government can work, democracy can work. Now’s the time to be bold. The American Families Plan is part of that plan. But he is also gonna talk about police reforms we need, the need to put gun safety measures in place, immigration. That’s all going to be in his speech tonight, too.
KING: Police reform is very important right now. The country’s –
PSAKI: No question.
KING: Yeah. The country’s not in a good place on that issue right now. Thank you, Jen Psaki, really good to see you.
PSAKI: Thank you, great to see you.
KING: Bye-bye.
