On Wednesday night and Thursday morning, both NBC and CBS touted leftist presidential historian Michael Beschloss cheering the Biden administration’s first White House press briefing as “the first non-weird press briefing in the White House I’ve seen in four years.” It was his way of saying that the liberal press are happy that their Democratic Party allies are back in power.
“I feel at the end of this long day as if I’m staggering out of a shipwreck on to dry land,” Beschloss proclaimed during NBC’s 8:00 p.m. ET hour special inauguration coverage Wednesday night as he fawned over the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. He marveled over how it “was an amazingly normal day” that “wound up with a briefing by the Press Secretary Jen Psaki, which was sort of the first non-weird press briefing in the White House I’ve seen in four years.”
During a friendly chat with Psaki on Thursday’s CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King eagerly cited Beschloss making similar comments on social media: “Michael Beschloss, the presidential historian tweeted last night, ‘First non-weird Press Secretary in four years.’ I’m wondering how long you intend to keep that going.”
In response, Psaki joked: “Non-weird? Well, that’s quite a description. I think I can achieve more than that, Gayle, I hope, than non-weird.” She then promised that she would “be doing the briefing Monday through Friday” and that her “objective is to help rebuild trust with the public.”
Beschloss also took to Twitter to wail about the White House press corps being “ridiculed and viciously abused” during the Trump administration.
King happily concluded: “Truth and transparency is a good start. We look forward to it.” Fellow co-host Tony Dokoupil chimed in: “Absolutely, yeah.” He then hoped Psaki being on the show would be the “First appearance of many.”
Now that their Democratic friends are back in the White House, the liberal media are just thrilled. That was evidenced by the softball questions that Psaki was treated to during Wednesday evening’s press conference.
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Here is a transcript of Beschloss’s January 20 remarks:
8:11 PM ET
(...)
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: I feel at the end of this long day as if I’m staggering out of a shipwreck on to dry land. Where we were at the beginning of this day? Still nervous about what the previous president would do. Joe Biden gave a speech of unity and healing and appealed to the best of us. This was an amazingly normal day if you think of the circumstances. Horrible pandemic, over 400,000 people dead, many of those unnecessarily. Plus security threats in the wake of almost losing our democracy under certain scenarios in that attack at exactly two weeks ago today. The inaugural ceremony looked amazingly normal, you even had the President and First Lady walking on Pennsylvania Avenue. Not as long as Jimmy Carter did, for a mile in 1977, but with the kind of things we’ve heard about their security, you would not have expected that. This was a really normal day. And it wound up with a briefing by the Press Secretary Jen Psaki, which was sort of the first non-weird press briefing in the White House I’ve seen in four years.
(...)
Here is a transcript of Kings January 21 exchange with Psaki:
8:09 AM ET
(...)
GAYLE KING: Hey, Jen Psaki, it’s Gayle King here. I wondered –
JEN PSAKI: Hi, Gayle.
KING: Hi. Michael Beschloss, the presidential historian tweeted last night, “First non-weird Press Secretary in four years.” I'm wondering how long you intend to keep that going.
PSAKI: Non-weird? Well, that’s quite a description. I think I can achieve more than that, Gayle, I hope, than non-weird. You know, we’re going to be briefing, I’m going to be doing the briefing Monday through Friday, five days a week. We’ll bring some guests, we’re bringing Dr. Fauci today. We want to introduce the diverse faces and voices and the policy experts who are going to be leading all of these efforts across government. So we’ll do that on a number of days. But you know, my objective is to help rebuild trust with the public. And I go into it every day with an understanding that there’s going to be healthy debates in there, that’s the job of the media. And my job is to kind of represent the views of the president. But that’s what people should expect to see. And that debate’s healthy, it’s part of our democracy.
KING: Truth and transparency is a good start. We look forward to it.
TONY DOKOUPIL: Absolutely, yeah. First appearance of many we hope. Jen Psaki, thank you very much.
(...)
