In an announcement from MSNBC that was roughly as surprising as the sun rising in the east, the network proclaimed that former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki will soon debut a new weekly news show as part of their Sunday lineup. They chose the curious title “Inside with Jen Psaki.” I described it as “curious” because she’s not really “inside” of the administration at all, right? In fact, she’s been on the “outside” for the better part of a year. The network said that the show will “leverage Psaki’s wide-ranging expertise to tackle the biggest issues of the week.” You can’t really argue with that because she’s been in the swamp for quite a while, serving variously as a political advisor, communications director, and press secretary for a number of prominent Democrats. But will she be able to do anything to rescue MSNBC’s disastrous ratings? (NY Post)

President Biden’s former press secretary Jen Psaki will host a weekly Sunday show on MSNBC, the network announced on Tuesday.

“Inside with Jen Psaki” will debut at noon on Sunday, March 19 — more than 10 months after Biden’s first mouthpiece left the White House.

“We have been working on some fun and different features … and can’t wait to dig into all of the news,” Psaki tweeted. “See you soon.”

Let's do this…looking forward to Sunday, March 19th… We have been working on some fun and different features…and can't wait to dig into all of the news..see you soon https://t.co/J8xQUTddoT

— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) February 21, 2023

It was known that MSNBC was reaching out to Psaki about a job before she even left the Biden White House, but it’s apparently taken until now to put all of the pieces in place to launch the show. That news cast a pall over her final days in the briefing room because it created a clear conflict of interest. How can you be the face of the administration charged with dealing with the media when you’ve already become part of the media? Even worse, there was an obvious temptation to play favorites and give MSNBC special attention knowing that they would soon be cutting her paychecks.

Psaki always had a condescending tone when dealing with Fox News or any other conservative outlets. (On the rare occasions when they were heard from.) So MSNBC was a pretty clear destination for her. But how many Republicans do you think will be willing to appear as guests on her show? That’s probably not going to look like a very tempting offer. If they know how she acted while standing at the briefing room lectern, how do you suppose she will behave behind the desk at the most liberal network on the air?

Jen Psaki wasn’t very “fun” as a Press Secretary and I never thought I would miss seeing her doing the White House briefings. But then again, I had no idea just how completely awful her replacement would be. Karine Jean-Pierre makes Psaki look like a masterful orator by comparison. And Jen would at least try to fake it a bit when hit with a question she wasn’t prepared for. Her style has been replaced with “I’ll have to circle back to you on that,” and “I don’t have anything for you.”

With all of that said, I’ll be tuning in on March 19th just to get a feel for how this will play out. I suppose I’m just a sucker for punishment.