Name: "It's Not A Real Press Corps" - Jen Psaki On The New Faces In The Pentagon Press Briefing Room
Uploaded: 2025-12-05T17:07:59.000Z
Duration: 6 min 48 s
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Ladies and gentlemen, my first guest tonight is a former White House press secretary and the host of the Briefing with Jen Psaki on Ms.

Now, please welcome back to the Late Show, Jen Psaki.

Now, the last time we spoke, you worked for msnbc.

How often, and be honest, do you make the mistake and call it msnbc?

Now, you were at the White House press podium for how long were you there?

But I was at the State Department for two and a half years.

Now for the people who may have forgotten, the Pentagon put out a directive this year saying you gotta sign an oath essentially of loyalty to Pete Hegseth, and

you can't report anything that we don't approve at the Pentagon or else we're pulling your passage and you can't come back into the Pentagon.

It's like Matt Gaet, Laura Loomer in there now, right?

Not just like they are literally in there.

And James o', Keefe, who is, you may remember from publishing Ashley Biden's diary, he's also in the press.

So those are the clowns that got in there now.

Wouldn't that have been lovely for you as the person at the podium?

What is the value ultimately of the press knowing anything?

I mean, look, I stood behind podiums for, for years.

I probably did thousands of hours behind podiums taking real questions, taking real questions.

Some questions I answered better than other questions.

But I did that because I'm a firm believer, as I think so many Americans are, that the freedom of press and the fact that the US Government has people who stand up there and answer real questions every day, including when they're tough questions, when the administration needs to be held to account, Democrats and Republicans, that's a part of our democracy.

It's a part of what we talk about in other parts of the world.

Even on days where I would walk out there and curse under my breath and know I was about to get a verbal beating from the press corps, it still is such an important part of what you do.

The New York Times is suing the Pentagon over first Amendment rights.

Well, I can't speak to what the courts are going to do.

But what I mean is this, what is so interesting right now in Washington is what is happening with the Pentagon press corps.

And you referenced, of course, the fact that they were all asked to sign this pledge that they would basically not report any information the Pentagon didn't authorize, which is not how reporting works in any way, shape or form.

Give credit where credit is due for Fox News refused to sign that.

All of the major outlets, for the most part, with some exceptions, refused to sign that.

And this lawsuit is all about how they are not being able to report on what is happening in the department that oversees war and peace in our country.

This would be a good week to be able to ask questions, too.

Well, I think you've talked about this, but I could not get over they had a.

I'm going to put them in quotes because it includes Laura Loomer and James o' Keefe and this crew.

So this week has been quite a week, as you outlined in your monologue of things.

Anyone here, anyone watching, might have questions for Pete Hegseth.

They had a press briefing with him where they could ask anything they wanted.

And they made no news, no news at all, which is pretty remarkable.

But I will say what is encouraging to me at least, is that all of these outlets that did not sign the pledge that no longer have desks in the Pentagon, they have been making tons of news.

They have been reporting the Washington Post.

You need to be fearless and you need to hold the administration to account.

I want to get back to the Pentagon in a second, but

I want to talk about Congress for a second.

The GOP narrowly won a special election in Tennessee, I mean, by nine points.

But Trump won the district by 22, 22 last year, a year ago.

His lack of leadership is being criticized by other members of the gop, some quite publicly.

Well, first of all, Mike Johnson is the speaker of the House and second in line to the presidency.

He's the most powerful person in one of the branches of government and he absolutely should be running things, which he has declined to do because he's waiting for phone calls from Donald Trump, I believe.

But what has been interesting is there have been a lot of dissatisfaction with him from many members.

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"It's Not A Real Press Corps" - Jen Psaki On The New Faces In The Pentagon Press Briefing Room

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