TrueValueMetrics ... Impact Accounting for the 21st Century

Date: 2025-08-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027093

US POLITICS ... ELECTION 2024 JEN PSAKI TALKS WITH BTC Brian Tyler Cohen: Jen Psaki discusses issues including takedown of Project 2025 PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1j2jrhneqY Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
Jen Psaki issues MUST-SEE takedown of Project 2025 Brian Tyler Cohen Jul 14, 2024 2.84M subscribers Interviews with Brian Tyler Cohen INTERVIEW: Brian interviews Jen Psaki about Joe Biden’s uncertain path forward and whether airing these grievances out in public is hurting the party. LISTEN TO FULL PODCAST EPISODE HERE: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/462qZl0 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4bDeYE5 Order my new book SHAMELESS: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/s... Subscribe for more and follow me here: YouTube (español): https://www.youtube.com/@briantylerco... Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/36UvEHs Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0066rKC... Twitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylerc... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohen Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/briantylercohen Newsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-up/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@briantylercohen Suit by JB Clothiers: https://jbclothiers.com/btc Explore the podcast Transcript 0:00 now we've got the former White House Press Secretary and the host of inside with Jen saki on MSNBC Jen thanks so much for taking the time I always love talking to you Brian Tyler Cohen uh it's great to be here thanks for having me thank you so okay we are obviously in a tough spot right now with the Democratic party pretty clearly split regarding what to do as we move forward with Biden 0:19 so how how have you been reconciling the 0:22 difference in people who on one hand say 0:25 we want to win and Biden's the only one 0:27 who's done it he enjoys the incumbency 0:29 advantage he's got a strong record to 0:31 run on with the other people who say we 0:34 also want to win and we think it's too 0:36 precarious with Joe Biden so let's pivot 0:38 to kamla Harris who can more effectively 0:40 prosecute a campaign against Donald 0:42 Trump well they're not necessarily conf 0:45 they're different points of view but 0:47 it's important to remember that all of 0:49 the people with all of the views recognize the existential threat of Donald Trump right right and that's a great Point like everyone is coming from a place of good faith and and it's good to position it's important to remember 1:01 that and you know people are looking at their districts they're hearing from their constituents they're basing it on their own political Instinct not everybody is possibly right in these scenarios right um but I think it's um I 1:16 actually think as H challenging and 1:17 slightly hellish of a period of time 1:19 this is within the Democratic party it's 1:21 also speaks to how the party is a party 1:25 that cares about democracy that cares 1:27 about having real conversations about 1:29 who who can defeat Donald Trump and it 1:31 and it and it's evidence of that as well 1:33 so I don't know if it can be reconciled 1:35 because there is not a clear answer to 1:37 that question a lot of things are true 1:39 at the same time right and so the points 1:42 you raised are are very true right if 1:44 you're the Biden team and and people who 1:46 feel it it can only be him they're 1:49 looking at data and they're saying the 1:51 race is closed we've always said that 1:53 things haven't massively moved um you 1:56 know we are still doing what we need to 1:58 do every day the president just had had 2:00 a good press conference where he talked 2:02 comprehensively about a range of foreign 2:03 policy issues all those things are true 2:06 at the same time What also is true is 2:08 members of Congress Senators people up 2:10 for reelection who are saying I'm 2:12 concerned about whether he is up for the 2:15 job from what I saw in the press 2:16 conference I I'm sorry what I saw in the 2:18 debate a couple of weeks ago and what 2:20 I'm hearing from my own constituents 2:22 that's the challenge of this moment what 2:24 I don't know time time means it has to 2:27 be resolved but how exactly it is going 2:30 to be resolved yeah well what is 2:32 happening at the white house right now 2:34 like you were in the Inner Circle while 2:35 you were there what are the 2:36 conversations that are taking place 2:38 behind the 2:39 scenes yes I I was I have not worked 2:42 there in over two years right so I can 2:43 just speak broadly which is I know what 2:45 you're asking me but to speak broadly 2:47 about the kinds of conversations 2:49 happening in this moment there are a 2:51 number of very close valued AIDs that 2:53 the president has long listened to 2:55 people like Mike donalan and Steve rete 2:57 Ted Kaufman who actually took his he 3:00 took his spot in the Senate when the 3:02 president became the vice president 3:04 these are all advisers who reportedly 3:06 have been talking to him and who seem to 3:08 very much want him to continue with the 3:10 race there have also been reports of 3:13 other people other others in the White 3:16 House who don't want him to continue now 3:18 what is it's important to read the fine 3:20 print in moments like this because the 3:22 that reporting Sugg says it is not the 3:26 Inner Circle and not people who have 3:28 talked to President Biden there are 3:30 thousands of people who work on the 3:31 White House complex so hard to know who 3:33 those people are but the conversations I 3:36 think largely if you're in the White 3:37 House are in the campaign you're you're 3:40 you're focused on your dayto day your 3:42 job and your agenda is to keep moving 3:45 forward and keep supporting the 3:47 president who has said publicly and I'm 3:48 certain privately he wants to continue 3:50 to be the nominee does that mean no one 3:52 has doubts certainly not some of them do 3:55 right and it's very frustrating moment 3:56 it's a hard moment but that's what 3:58 you're focused on day-to-day internally 4:00 they're looking at data they're looking 4:02 at fundraising numbers they're 4:05 reportedly calling delegates which 4:06 totally makes sense um and they're 4:09 acquiring their own information about 4:10 the path forward ultimately is it solely 4:14 Joe Biden's decision as to what happens 4:16 I I I know people like to say that that 4:19 they are going to force him out but I'm 4:20 not sure so sure that there are these 4:22 smoke filed back rooms where these 4:24 decisions are made by by the they 4:27 anymore well it right and it doesn't 4:29 even work that that way I mean the 4:30 president has campaigned across the 4:33 country millions of people have voted 4:35 for him um the delegates from the states 4:39 that have already voted are bound to him 4:40 in the first round at the convention so 4:43 it is it's not just a talking point from 4:46 a lot of people it is technically true 4:48 right that it is it is his choice um you 4:52 know there there certainly could be 4:53 pressure campaigns privately which we we 4:56 may know some of the details we may 4:57 never know the details and certainly 4:59 there could be public and a number of 5:00 members have called on him to step back 5:03 from this moment but um technically and 5:08 and you know it is his it is his choice 5:12 could I could I be annoying and ask for 5:14 your prediction as to what you think is 5:15 going to happen as we head toward 5:17 November it's not annoying at all I mean 5:19 what what is um challenging hard maybe 5:23 interesting in this moment is that no 5:26 one knows what's going to happen and if 5:27 they tell you they know what's going to 5:28 happen they're to you right it it is so 5:32 what I can tell you is what the likely 5:35 paths are right one path is and if 5:38 you're the White House again as I've 5:40 said they have very valid arguments to 5:41 make but they are it's a game of time 5:44 for them and with every day and week 5:46 that passes the more likely it is he 5:48 holds on to the nomination right so to 5:50 them you just got to get passed day by 5:51 day and week by week and they've been 5:53 you know he did the press conference 5:55 he's going to do an interview with 5:56 Lester Holt you just continue to 5:58 schedule things so that there's more 6:00 that people are looking to and the 6:01 Republican convention is obviously a 6:03 whole other Focus point where Democrats 6:06 will unite around their hatred of trump 6:08 right so that is if you're in the 6:11 campaign is an opportunity an advantage 6:13 the other path is there is data that 6:16 suggests he doesn't have a path to win 6:18 there's data that suggests the house and 6:20 the house can't be won and the Senate 6:22 will be lost if he stays on the ticket 6:25 um money could dry up delegates could 6:28 leave if there are factors like that 6:30 that make a path to Victory difficult 6:33 the president can make a decision to 6:35 step back in that scenario and all 6:38 likelihood he the vice president would 6:41 be the choice for a range of reasons 6:43 including he selected her for not 6:45 exactly this reason but as he said at 6:46 the press conference because he thought 6:48 she could do the job yeah also she can 6:51 uh the TR the the money can be 6:52 transferred to her she's a very 6:55 effective I think she's an undervalued 6:56 communicator but she also would be uh 7:00 you know an African-American woman of 7:01 course at the top of the ticket which 7:03 it's not surely Chism it's not 7:04 unprecedented but it is also still a 7:07 historic moment and a huge base of the 7:10 party uh an important base of the party 7:13 um is African-American women so it's 7:15 hard for me to imagine as much as I 7:17 think there's amazing 2028 potential 7:20 candidates a lot of them Governors who 7:22 will run it not being her I tend to 7:24 agree but in terms of which Avenue we go 7:28 it it feels like it's difficult to 7:30 figure out which data would point to to 7:32 which one because you can there's so 7:35 much data available that would suggest 7:37 that you know on one hand Joe Biden is 7:38 running 10 points behind in Pennsylvania 7:40 and then we see other polls for example 7:42 that are coming out that show him 7:43 actually leading in the aftermath of the 7:45 debate so when this decision or or 7:47 whatever it is is ultimately made I 7:49 guess the difficult part for me is to 7:52 figure out which path it's going to be 7:53 based on just scattershot polling that 7:56 depending on which way you want to look 7:58 you can always confirm your prior 7:59 well that's true to a degree but the 8:03 president's been behind in Wisconsin by 8:05 about Five Points um that's a state 8:07 they've said they have to win Nevada 8:10 he's way behind it it doesn't mean this 8:11 is insurmountable it just means these 8:13 are things that are actually data points 8:15 that have been pretty consistent the 8:17 challenge I think here which is which is 8:19 so hard for the campaign in the white 8:21 house because you're you're trying to 8:23 meet a bar that you don't know what the 8:24 bar is no one's defining what the bar is 8:27 and his performance the debate which 8:30 even he has said was bad and it was bad 8:33 it was not a oneof in the sense that it 8:36 affirmed something people had concern 8:38 about which was which you saw this in 8:40 polls right which is concern about his 8:42 age and whether he was up to the job 8:44 it's hard to unring that Bell you know 8:48 and that's a real challenge for the 8:49 campaign and the White House even when 8:51 he can speak comprehensively about China 8:53 and a range of issues in a press 8:55 conference as he did um you know earlier 8:57 this week so you know I think there is 9:01 well polling the other challenge of this 9:03 moment as you know is that the country 9:05 is so divided that it's this it's never 9:08 going to be like there's a 20o gap 9:10 between the presidential candidates it's 9:11 always going to be narrow in all 9:13 likelihood and so it will always be a 9:15 narrow Gap it's more about if the people 9:18 were very politically sophisticated and 9:20 he is very politically sophisticated 9:22 himself kind of see that there's not a 9:24 path to Victory well you know there are 9:26 going to be people who are watching or 9:27 listening to this right now and saying 9:29 just by virtue of us having this 9:30 conversation it's weakening our position 9:32 because we should be focusing on Donald 9:34 Trump and and for those people by the 9:36 way my next question is about Donald 9:37 Trump so we're going to Pivot to that 9:39 but but what are your thoughts on on 9:42 that whole you know aspect of this 9:44 because that is what's worrying a lot of 9:45 people is that just being in a situation 9:47 where we are airing these grievances out 9:49 loud is just ultimately hurting someone 9:52 who may very well who's very likely to 9:54 be the nominee in the end listen I get 9:57 that I understand people's anger 9:59 people's frustration I've had a lot of 10:01 it directed at me I've been called a 10:02 traitor treacherous a liar all the sorts 10:05 of things that's okay um I think that 10:09 what is important to recognize right now 10:11 is that this is about 10:13 Trump Joe Biden is not running against 10:15 Mitt Romney right who you may have 10:17 disagreements with and a different point 10:20 of view on a range of issues on he's not 10:22 a person who would want to end democracy 10:23 and you'd be concerned having the 10:25 nuclear codes right and Trump poses a 10:29 much far far more existential threat 10:31 nobody projected this 10:33 conversation without a prompting event 10:36 and the prompting event was the debate 10:39 do I wish Joe Biden had done better 10:41 absolutely so does he so does I'm sure 10:43 anyone out there and I love him I think 10:45 he's been an amazing president he's an 10:47 amazing human being but not 10:50 acknowledging that there are valid 10:53 concerns from the public and from people 10:55 who are running for office and for a lot 10:57 of people fighting for important issues 11:00 I think is also a 11:02 disservice so meanwhile Donald Trump now 11:05 is desperately running away from his own 11:07 agenda and that's project 2025 do you 11:09 think his attempts to distance himself 11:10 are going to work here I mean you have 11:13 been doing such a good job of this but 11:15 it is hilarious and insane that he is 11:17 pretending he doesn't know anything 11:19 about project 2025 also I'm loving the 11:22 Heritage Foundation president who's like 11:24 it's basically making trumpism happen in 11:27 a second term so I'm sure Trump is like 11:30 ripping up a piece of paper or throwing 11:32 a dart at that guy's face on a wall you 11:35 know it's interesting because if you 11:36 cycle analyze Trump which is obviously 11:38 always dangerous but in this particular 11:41 instance it feels like he saw The 11:44 Branding of this project 2025 thing is 11:46 not working well as in it's kind of 11:49 becoming a problem yeah true fact check 11:52 that's true right but at the same time 11:56 for the most part and there are some 11:57 exceptions but for the most part this 11:59 nearly 900 page plan is his blueprint 12:02 and align with his plan I mean as you've 12:05 talked about but things like mass 12:08 deportations and overall I me there's a 12:10 lot in in there it's almost 900 pages 12:12 but overall this theory of governing 12:15 which is about giving more power to the 12:18 executive branch in a way that they 12:20 overpower the other branches which if 12:23 that doesn't sound scary it should 12:25 because we're talking about somebody 12:26 wanting that power who wants to go after 12:28 his political enemies right and use the 12:31 military and other resources of the 12:33 presidency to do that so well that's 12:36 what it's a blueprint for and it is very 12:38 much and and as as I think people know 12:41 by now but his former AIDS who will 12:43 probably be his future AIDS have worked 12:45 on this plan Russ vote who's been on 12:47 basically every short list for chief of 12:49 staff is the person who wrote the 12:51 executive branch section his press 12:54 secretary is in their videos it's it's 12:56 like on the banners of the Republican 12:58 National con 12:59 I mean it is his plan yeah are you are 13:02 you saying you're not buying into the uh 13:04 this this uh talking point that he has 13:06 no idea who's behind it even though 200 13:08 members of his administration are behind 13:09 it well I think it was a good sign and I 13:12 love Taylor Swift I consider myself a 13:14 Swifty but that there were more Google 13:16 searches for project 2025 than Taylor 13:18 Swift right last week which I think 13:21 tells you that that I don't I don't know 13:24 that that's magga people like I want 13:26 more details on this maybe some of them 13:28 I think it's mostly people who are like 13:30 this seems scary I need to Le more learn 13:32 more about it yeah what what to that 13:34 point then what do you think is the most 13:35 striking part of project 2025 what do 13:37 you what do you what do you see as the 13:39 most 13:39 chilling well again I think you could go 13:42 through Section by section and have 13:44 concerns and be alarmed but I think it's 13:46 the overarching view of governing the 13:49 overarching view of governing is 13:52 empowering the president of the United 13:54 States as a dictator and a king and 13:57 that's important because our 13:59 Constitution and the way our government 14:01 is set up was never meant to make the 14:03 president all powerful there are checks 14:05 and balances in our system a Judiciary 14:07 that's supposed to hold everyone to 14:09 account right Congress that has a 14:11 separate branch of approvals for 14:14 legislation and funding it's set up that 14:17 way for a reason and what this plan 14:19 tries to do is to weaken and and mute 14:23 out the powers of anyone but the 14:25 presidency yeah um pivoting here 14:29 congratulations on your new York Times 14:31 best-selling book that 14:33 is sharp turn there yeah sharp turn here 14:37 yeah I guess I guess not too natural of 14:38 a segue to go from Project 2025 to your 14:40 book but guess I could have done that 14:42 with a little bit more uh more more 14:44 massaging good it's great uh well 14:46 something that did strike me was that 14:48 this is a book about communication 14:50 broadly and it inadvertently is 14:52 coinciding with a moment in which the 14:55 principal issue plaguing the president 14:57 right now is an inability to communicate 14:59 as effectively as he would like to so 15:02 he's you know clearly got the 15:03 legislation chops he's clearly got the 15:05 foreign policy chops that's all there 15:07 but the communication in of itself is 15:09 lacking and meanwhile we've got Trump 15:11 who is completely incompetent when it 15:14 comes to legislation and foreign policy 15:15 and all of those other buckets but he 15:17 can communicate with his audience 15:19 effectively so do you think that the 15:21 calculus as far as being a president has 15:24 completely changed in this political 15:25 environment in terms of what Americans 15:27 see as important for a 15:30 leader God that's a good question let me 15:32 start by saying this Trump is an 15:35 effective Communicator in an evil and 15:38 dark way in part because he's entirely 15:40 consistent he doesn't speak in acronyms 15:43 he doesn't throw data in your face and 15:46 he speaks with emot in in emotional ways 15:50 now I think the way he speaks in 15:52 emotional ways is dark dangerous and 15:54 fear inducing which is the purpose but 15:56 those are some ways that effective 15:59 communication is done you know who else 16:02 can effectively communicate like that 16:03 but in a way that's for the light Joe 16:05 Biden yeah and what we saw at the debate 16:08 you know it's interesting because before 16:09 the debate when I was on MSNBC I said I 16:12 hope the thing he doesn't do is study 16:15 data and feel like he needs to list 16:18 numbers and data and he does that 16:20 because I think he's got like a I went 16:23 to a state school too but like a a chip 16:25 on his shoulder that like he you know 16:27 he's got social is smart right he is 16:29 smart he's a president of the United 16:31 States right he doesn't need to list out 16:33 data you couldn't bring notes in he 16:35 didn't have it in front of him he tried 16:37 to list it out he lost his train of 16:38 thought he had to correct himself it 16:40 wasn't the only issue with the debate 16:42 but I just use it as an example because 16:45 that is not his superpower his 16:46 superpower is empathy his superpower is 16:49 speaking with passion about the issues 16:51 he cares about I mean at the press 16:53 conference you saw this moment which 16:54 came out of almost nowhere but about gun 16:57 violence and that did Show how he cares 17:00 deeply about that particular issue right 17:03 that those are the superpower moments of 17:05 Joe Biden not data not even I mean he's 17:10 a good he's actually in historically has 17:12 been a good debater he's a good kind of 17:14 puncher of verbally typically in those 17:17 forums but that's that's not his 17:19 superpower it's empathy it's connecting 17:22 and it's speaking in English that people 17:24 from Scranton you know that other towns 17:26 like Scranton understand and relate to 17:28 yeah can you uh can you tell a story of 17:30 meeting Barack Obama I think that's my 17:32 favorite oh my 17:35 God so um when I started working for 17:38 Barack Obama I I it was a couple of 17:40 years after he gave his amazing 17:42 convention speech I tell the story in 17:43 there about how your friend and mine 17:45 John favro and I were backstage at the 17:49 convention at the time in 2004 17:51 litigating an argument between John 17:53 cary's daughters about who would 17:54 introduce him at the convention so we 17:56 actually missed the speech but of course 17:57 we all saw it afterwards 17:59 and this was 2007 when I first met him 18:02 it was October and I had been uh sent by 18:07 the campaign to go staff him which means 18:09 travel with him to events in Ohio he's 18:11 doing fundraisers and some other events 18:13 so I was waiting in his car because you 18:15 wait in the car so that when the 18:16 principal or the senator or the 18:17 candidate gets out of the car you're not 18:19 delaying the process and I thought I'm 18:21 so nervous I'm going to throw up because 18:24 he was a larger than life figure then he 18:26 still is now I mean sometimes I get 18:28 nervous when see him now which is kind 18:30 of ludicrous I worked for him for 10 18:31 years but um he gets in the car and I 18:34 said I'm sure you're wondering who I am 18:37 and why I'm here in your car and I was 18:39 like that was so slick I felt really 18:41 good about myself you know yeah and then 18:43 I proceeded to get the um strap of my 18:47 bag caught on a handle of the car and 18:49 for the entire contents of my bag pens 18:53 tampons like everything into his lap um 18:58 he is quite cerebral as they often say 19:00 so he didn't freak out he didn't jump he 19:02 just sort of calmly picked everything up 19:04 and looked at me like did that seriously 19:07 just happen um I obiously recovered I 19:09 worked for him for 10 more years but um 19:12 it was quite a first meeting yeah yeah 19:14 um all right so so now finally we have 19:18 MSNBC Live it's happening Saturday 19:20 September 7th what is it and and why was 19:23 it important for TV people to be doing a 19:26 live event one I think Live Events are 19:28 so so important and amazing because you 19:30 have an opportunity to actually engage 19:32 with people people who are watching the 19:34 shows people have questions people who 19:35 are engaged in the fight for democracy 19:37 just like you are right just like we all 19:39 are on our shows or or podcasts or 19:42 YouTube shows or whatever it may be and 19:44 this was an opportunity at in just just 19:47 months before a very pivotal election to 19:50 do exactly that so people can um attend 19:53 we'll have sessions where we talk about 19:55 a range of issues with everybody's 19:57 favorite anchors and I mean of course 19:59 Rachel Mano is going to be there Joy 20:00 Reed Chris Hayes um Alex Wagner 20:03 everybody's favorites and we'll talk 20:05 about the issues of the day the election 20:07 democracy Steve Kaki of course he be 20:09 there as well um but really it was an 20:11 opportunity to engage with the viewers 20:13 and that's such an important part of what we all do it's such a privilege to be able to host shows as you know and um rarely do you get to do it like this in person very much looking forward to it for those watching and listening right now again the book is say more highly recommend grabbing a copy Jen thank you so much for taking the time thank you it was great talking to you [Music]

SITE COUNT