Psaki: Trump's 'secret weapons' flop in the spotlight

[0:00] Okay. I have a few things to say about my old boss, Barack Obama. Not old, just my boss for a long time. I worked for him for 10 years. He was on Stephen Colbert last night. Stephen Colbert, of course, only has a couple more weeks of his show. He flew to Chicago. He interviewed Obama in person. It's a great watch. There's tons of things that Obama said in there, but I just want to play just one of them. [0:21] You know, a good policy that I'd like to see followed is that the president of the United States shouldn't have a bunch of side hustles that those companies and foreign entities can invest in. [0:42] How much of that is just jealous that you didn't think of selling a sneaker? Because your sneakers would have flown. You know that, right? You would have banked coin. [0:50] I just, I mean, I thought this was a pretty obvious principle. [1:00] I mean, okay, first of all, again, I worked for him for 10 years, so you can kind of see. You remember when there was the anger translator and we did this whole riff on that? [1:10] The thing is, is that Obama is self-controlling himself. I mean, he really wants to scream about how Donald Trump is literally making, at least last count, at least $1.4 billion his family is from being president. [1:23] But he doesn't. But when you see clips like that, you want to scream. And a lot of people do. There's a lot of chatter about this. [1:31] Why can't he be out there saying that stuff and even more aggressively every single day? We need him out there. This is existential and it very much is what we're facing right now from the country. [1:40] And believe me, I get that. I miss his voice too. I miss hearing him out there too. He has a unique way of capturing certain moments and what needs to be said. [1:53] But here's the other thing to remember. And I think how he thinks about it. That's, I guess, what I want to talk about. [1:59] Before he even left office, so this is a long time ago, we talked a lot about and we knew Trump was elected. [2:07] We talked about what kind of role he wanted to play at post-presidency because there's a traditional role that presidents play. [2:13] They aren't out there a lot. I mean, George W. Bush is largely painting canvases somewhere in Texas, right? [2:19] Bill Clinton kind of comes out every now and then, campaign cycles. He obviously does the Clinton Global Initiative, you know, things like that. [2:25] He's out there a bit, right? But most of the time, past presidents, they go do non-profits, they start international organizations. [2:34] They don't attack their successors. This is different. And Obama knew that it was going to be different and he had to have selective moments. [2:42] And that's essentially what he's been doing, which in his mind, and I think this does make sense, when he does it, it's even more powerful. [2:49] And he has been out there in certain moments, like around the Virginia ballot initiative on redistricting, around California Prop 50. [2:59] He's also done a number of kind of interesting interviews. He went on with Hasan Minhaj. [3:03] He also did this kind of – he's done some videos with influencers, which is something he's always enjoyed doing. [3:10] But one with Vic Blenz, who's a barber who launched a barber school within a California prison. [3:15] And he's long cared about criminal justice reform. So my point is, he is doing things and he is out there and he is not holding back in his views on Trump. [3:24] He was out there in 2024. I expect he'll be out there in 2026. [3:27] But here's the other thing that's important about how he sees this and what is going on in his mind, I think, is that he doesn't want to take up all the oxygen. [3:36] He took up a lot of the oxygen for a good decade when he was president and he was running for president, even after his speech in 2004. [3:44] And he knows and believes there is a tremendous bench of Democrats out there who may all run for president or maybe they don't run for president. [3:53] Maybe they're just super talents out there. And he talked actually a lot about Zoran Mamdani during this interview. [3:59] I don't think he's going to run for president, but he is super, super talented. [4:02] And in his mind, he's got to leave space for that, because if he is talking out there every day, whether it's critiquing Trump or laying out the policy or the future of the Democratic Party or whatever it may be, [4:14] then there's not going to be space for any range of people from J.B. Pritzker to Gavin Newsom to Gretchen Whitmer to Wes Moore to Zoran Mamdani to Pete Buttigieg to Bashir. [4:29] I mean, all of these people are who may run for president, may not, who are just stars in the party. [4:35] AOC, of course. And that's on his mind. [4:37] It is scary not to have a leader of the party that you're in or that you believe in or that you agree with. [4:44] And that's the moment we're in right now. And I think a lot of people are feeling that it's very valid, especially given who's in the White House. [4:51] But what is exciting about it is that you, the people out there, get to choose. [4:57] There is no, thank God, dark room in Washington where people sit around. [5:00] They decide here's who the nominee is going to be. Typically, that's not how it happens. [5:04] It's not how democracy works. There's going to be a whole process and maybe 30 people won for president. [5:09] And the thing with Barack Obama is he wants to leave space for that. [5:13] And so I think and we'll keep doing this, but I want to call out just some of the speeches and some of the people I see who I think are particularly meeting a moment of what needs to be said. [5:22] And so I want to just show a little bit of clip of James Tallarico, who's, of course, running for Senate in Texas. [5:27] This current cost of living crisis is the culmination of 50 years of trickle-down economics. [5:36] All of this has left your generation disillusioned. [5:43] Disillusionment has a bad reputation. [5:47] Being disillusioned means being freed from illusions, to see reality, to know the truth. [5:55] As painful as it may be, your disillusionment is a superpower. [6:01] You can see the world as it is and dream of the way it ought to be. [6:07] You know why that was so good? For a bunch of reasons. [6:10] It is embracing disillusionment. [6:12] It is embracing how pissed off young people are, a lot of people in this country are, with what they don't see political parties doing. [6:21] That is a very good way of doing it and acknowledging it. [6:25] And again, you may not like James Tallarico, you may like him. [6:27] The point is, there are a lot of people out there saying and doing really interesting things, and Barack Obama won't sleep space for it. [6:33] And no matter who you like or who you're intrigued by, here's the thing to remember. [6:37] What might these people be running against, whether they're running for president or just running to be a leader in the party? [6:43] Well, they're running against this. [6:45] Are you a strong person? [6:46] Yes, sir. [6:47] You think you can take me in a fight? [6:49] I mean, what in the hell? [6:53] That was a group of kids. [6:54] Therefore, I think a presidential fitness sort of extravaganza at the White House. [6:59] He also talked about Iran. [7:01] He talked about nuclear weapons. [7:03] The whole thing was bizarre. [7:04] There is almost no one more awkward around children than Donald Trump. [7:08] My point is, that is what the other side is representing. [7:11] So there is a huge bunch of people who can do better than that and better than him on a million things. [7:16] OK, speaking of awkward, because there's so much awkward happening in this White House. [7:20] I cannot. [7:21] There's just awkward every day. [7:23] J.D. Vance, who is, of course, the vice president, supposed to be the political power, the secret weapon, the guy who's going to be on the trail and helping Republicans maintain control of power. [7:37] OK, well, J.D. Vance went to Iowa this week, a state, by the way, in normal times in recent history. [7:45] I mean, Obama won Iowa, but it has not been. [7:48] I mean, in recent history, just to give you a sense, Trump won by nine points in 2020. [7:52] Iowa, even when he lost the presidential race, and he won by 13 points in 2024. [7:56] So not exactly a purple state, although I think it is becoming more purple these days and maybe even blue in some parts of it. [8:04] But J.D. Vance went there to campaign. [8:08] And it's interesting they're using his time for that, because right now in Iowa, there's a governor's race. [8:13] Rob Stand, who's the state auditor, who's quite popular, only Democrat elected statewide, is running. [8:18] He's in a very locked in close race there. [8:21] And then there's still a primary for the Senate seat. [8:24] And there's two guys, Zach Walls and Josh Turek, who are competing in that. [8:29] But here's the thing. [8:30] All of it looks like a dead heat right now, and that is quite a statement about the state of Iowa. [8:35] So J.D. Vance, OK, that background was important. [8:38] J.D. Vance went there. [8:39] You're thinking, if you're his team or him, you're like, I got to crush this. [8:43] I have to go and I have to wow that crowd. [8:47] I have to make them feel like I'm their everyman. [8:49] And I'm the guy who wrote the book about my childhood in Appalachia. [8:53] And I'm going to be here and I'm going to talk about meeting working people where they are. [8:57] OK, you'd think you'd practice the speech a few times. [9:01] Here's how it went. [9:03] When I see that, when I see Iowa farmers who need to get that E-15 to market, what is this? [9:09] What is Zach going to have to help me out with her name here? [9:14] I lost my page here. [9:16] OK, all right. [9:19] OK, there we go. [9:20] Sarah Trone Garriott. [9:22] There he is. [9:22] I'm on the wrong page here. [9:25] OK, now he's talking about Iowa farmers. [9:29] He's talking about clean energy. [9:31] You'd think the vice president of the United States was able to riff in the moment. [9:37] You know, you'd think he could just talk, you know, all sorts of people. [9:40] By the way, lots of Democrats who are on the national scene can go out there and give a speech without a teleprompter and just riff and meet people where they are in the room. [9:51] J.D. Vance seems to have trouble with that. [9:52] OK, maybe he's not the future of MAGA or the future of the Republican Party. [9:57] I don't know. [9:58] I don't decide that. [9:59] But you'd think maybe. [10:01] OK, that was super awkward. [10:03] Maybe this is a space for Marco Rubio. [10:05] Marco Rubio, who's the secretary of state, the national security advisor, I guess, sort of head of USAID that they eliminated. [10:13] Maybe he has 10 other jobs. [10:14] And this week he was also the White House press secretary. [10:17] So he probably did better than J.D. Vance did. [10:20] Now, you heard him spit out a lot of the gaslighting commentary about the war in Iran, which I'm certainly not validating that. [10:29] And he basically only answered questions on national security primarily during this time in the briefing room. [10:36] And he also tried to be a little edgy. [10:40] So I just I got to play part of that. [10:43] They are facing real catastrophic destruction to their economy, generational destruction to their economy, generational destruction to the wealth of their country imposed on themselves by the by the actions that they're taking. [10:55] They should check themselves before they wreck themselves in the direction that they're going. [10:58] OK, that is, of course, a quote from a 1992, I believe, 1992 rap song and good on him, I suppose. [11:10] Maybe he is a lover of rap music. [11:13] Maybe he is. [11:15] But it just feels like that is not screaming authentic to me. [11:19] Maybe I'm wrong. [11:20] I don't know Marco Rubio. [11:21] But like, is that the best that there is to offer? [11:25] So this is my point just to go back to why isn't Barack Obama out there all the time and why isn't he leading our country out of this? [11:33] There are a lot of people who can lead our country out of this. [11:36] And remember, the alternative is J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump. [11:42] I guess Trump Jr., who's I don't even know if he has time to campaign because he's so busy making money off of his dad being president. [11:48] That's what we're looking at at this point in time. [11:50] We'll see if that continues. [11:51] OK, one other thing I just wanted to mention or talk about Hannah Natanson, who is a Washington Post reporter. [11:58] And this is such a cool development this week. [12:00] She may remember a couple of months ago, the FBI raided her home, which is so crazy. [12:06] And they took all sorts. [12:07] They took, I believe, her cell phone. [12:09] They got had access to all sorts of personal information of hers, her wedding plans with her partner, all sorts of crazy things. [12:15] All why. Now, they didn't say this at the time, but what was simultaneously happening or what you should know about her background is that she did this incredible reporting last year about the federal government's efforts to decrease the size, to shrink government and to cut programs. [12:30] And she built all of these sources across the federal government. [12:34] People were still in the federal government, people less the federal government. [12:37] And it was a massive public service to the country and to people who relied on government programs, who worked in the federal government in so many ways. [12:45] Now, think about how traumatizing it would be for anyone. [12:48] And as a journalist to have your home raided in this way or just in general. [12:53] And then she won this week at Pulitzer Prize. [12:58] And that is so amazing. [13:00] So even though the FBI is raiding her home and she's that sort of, I don't know, trying to kind of minimize her work, which is was incredible. [13:10] She was recognized by the Pulitzer board. [13:12] And I think that is just a really cool, cool thing. [13:16] She also had this moment where she was in the Washington where they were recognizing that. [13:19] And you could see how emotional she was. [13:21] And I just thought that was a beautiful moment, too. [13:24] I don't really know her, but this is my assessment. [13:27] Anyway, Hannah Natanson, keep at it. [13:29] Other journalists, keep at it. [13:30] So important. [13:31] Such an important part of what's happening right now.