MSNBC Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace apparently saw Brian Stelter’s bootlicking interview with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and thought ‘challenge accepted.’
And during a Thursday interview with Psaki, Wallace rhetorically told Stelter to hold her beer as she gushed about how the mostly liberal press pool gave her “high marks,” including “some of the President's detachers” who give her “grudging respect.”
Wallace began the doting interview by opining about how she’s spoken to “folks on the frontline of trying to protect not just voting rights but avoid voter nullification which a lot of people feel is the most ominous and haunting parts of these voter suppression bills.” She then complimented Psaki on her mastery of the issue:
I’m sure you know the numbers. 389 of them speeding through 48 legislatures, 22 of them already signed into law. You could argue that President Biden might not have won states like Georgia if that law had been in place then if you look at the numbers and the restrictions.
The grossest praise for Psaki came when Wallace tried to relate to her. “Jen, I've walked in similar shoes to the ones you walk in together probably 23 and half hours a day. I’m guessing. How do you feel like it's going,” she wondered, speaking with the cadence of a ditzy high school girl.
Wallace seemed to up the ante from Stelter’s request to have Psaki knock around the press a bit by just telling the Press Secretary how great she was, and suggested even the opposition bowed to her grace:
And you know, you get such high marks from the vast majority of the people in the room. You spare a little bit with some of the President's detachers. But I'm sure privately even they give you grudging respect. How do you feel it's going?
“Look, I think my role in there, Nicolle – and you've walked in these shoes so you know almost better than anyone – is to hopefully rebuild trust with the public and that sounds big and broad and hard to reach,” Psaki responded.
At different points in the interview, Wallace expanded her bootlicking to President Biden. “He is very popular not just in the Democratic Party but, I know he and you all point out, with Republicans in the country who supported the COVID relief package overwhelmingly, whose support likely contributed to Republicans coming to the table on infrastructure,” she gushed.
Adding: “Would he play a similar role in bringing Republicans to the White House to work on a bipartisan compromise on voting rights?”
And some of Wallace’s input wasn’t even asking questions of Psaki. In this instance, she just wanted to tell the Press Secretary how Biden supposedly willed the infrastructure deal into existence:
I know we get to talk to you today because of infrastructure. So, just tell me how this came to be. I mean, I think it was the President's will to make sure that it was big and that it was bipartisan. And I know you’ve got grumbling on both sides, but this this seems like quintessential President Biden doctrine driving this agreement today.
So NewsBusters readers, who do you think did a better job polishing Psaki’s boots?
Nicolle Wallace’s bootlicking of Jen Psaki was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Prevagen and Hyundai. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
June 24, 2021
4:38:59 p.m. Eastern(…)
NICOLLE WALLACE: I interview folks on the frontline of trying to protect not just voting rights but avoid voter nullification which a lot of people feel is the most ominous and haunting parts of these voter suppression bills.
I’m sure you know the numbers. 389 of them speeding through 48 legislatures, 22 of them already signed into law. You could argue that President Biden might not have won states like Georgia if that law had been in place then if you look at the numbers and the restrictions.
I want to know if he sides like people like Beto O’Rourke and Michigan’s Secretary Jocelyn Benson who say it is long overdue to reform the filibuster when it comes to voting rights legislation?
(…)
4:41:17 p.m. Eastern
WALLACE: He is very popular not just in the Democratic Party but, I know he and you all point out, with Republicans in the country who supported the COVID relief package overwhelmingly, whose support likely contributed to Republicans coming to the table on infrastructure. Would he play a similar role in bringing Republicans to the White House to work on a bipartisan compromise on voting rights?
(…)
4:44:22 p.m. Eastern
WALLACE: I know we get to talk to you today because of infrastructure. So, just tell me how this came to be. I mean, I think it was the President's will to make sure that it was big and that it was bipartisan. And I know you’ve got grumbling on both sides, but this this seems like quintessential President Biden doctrine driving this agreement today.
(…)
4:45:51 p.m. Eastern
WALLACE: Jen, I've walked in similar shoes to the ones you walk in together probably 23 and half hours a day. I’m guessing. How do you feel like it's going? And you know, you get such high marks from the vast majority of the people in the room. You spare a little bit with some of the President's detachers. But I'm sure privately even they give you grudging respect. How do you feel it's going?
PRESS SEC. JEN PSAKI: Look, I think my role in there, Nicolle – and you've walked in these shoes so you know almost better than anyone – is to hopefully rebuild trust with the public and that sounds big and broad and hard to reach. But I think what that means is having that back and forth engagement.
And as you know, it's the job of reporters and members of the media to push me and push us when we need to give more information, when something doesn't make sense. And that's part of democracy working in my view. So, some days I leave the briefing room and I think, “Oh, I wasn't quite clear. I wish I would have said that differently.”
But I hope at the end of this the public or people who pay attention to the briefing will feel I provided information and I peeled back the curtains of what's happening in government and help them think it was working for them. A I also hope that reporters even when we spar will think I treated them with respect and even when we have a back and forth. That’s a health part of this whole process.
(…)
