MS NOW host Jen Psaki worried on Wednesday that the Democratic Party was having a hard time breaking through in the current media environment, wondering if she was partly to blame because President Donald Trump often dominates the news cycle, even on her own show.
Psaki spoke to former ABC News journalist Terry Moran, who said Democrats didn’t have the lead one would expect ahead of November’s midterm elections, as Trump’s approval ratings remain low.
Psaki said enthusiasm was high for Democrats, but that the party had a hard time presenting themselves as something more than anti-Trump.
“It has taken some time for a lot of the leading Democratic voices to move from just anti-Trump to more than anti-Trump, right? To, ‘We’re not for Trump, but here’s what we’re offering,’” she said.
JOHN FETTERMAN RIPS DEMOCRATS FOR RUNNING CAMPAIGNS ON ‘F— TRUMP’ INSTEAD OF CONSTRUCTIVE MESSAGING
“I would also say, to take a little bit of the blame off of leading Democrats, it’s very hard to break through with that stuff,” Psaki added. “And I realize I have a platform, you have a platform — maybe we’re all at fault for this — but because the things Trump is doing every day are so crazy, it is hard for Democrats to break through with, ‘Here’s my plan for covering children under the age of six with additional health care benefits. Here’s my plan for giving more assistance to pre-K.'”
The MS NOW host said it was hard to decide whom she was going to book outside the Trump-focused news reaction, and said, “Maybe that’s a mistake.”
“So, I think there’s a lot of factors at play here, but a big one is I don’t think the public knows enough about the Democrats’ plans for making their lives better, as much as they don’t like Trump,” she said.
TUNING OUT: WHY MANY AMERICANS ARE SICK OF THE NEWS – ESPECIALLY TRUMP NEWS
Moran agreed with Psaki, and questioned how journalists should approach the issue.
“And, you know, he is chaos and dominates every second of every day as much as he can,” he said. “And so that does leave any journalist, any program, any independent journalist, broadcast journalist, with the same problem: Do you cover the Trump show, or do you cover the Trump administration and what people should know about it?”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
In April, Psaki told Stephen A. Smith she didn’t know why some people on the left were spending so much time talking about invoking the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump.
“I think there are times, I think a lot of people on — and I can’t speak for everybody on the left, I don’t agree with everything everybody says on the left either — you know, sometimes it’s like, not constructive,” Psaki said at the time.
“I mean, you’ve talked about the 25th Amendment,” she continued. “I have no issue with people saying they’re for invoking the 25th Amendment, but it’s not going to happen. So, it’s like why are we spending so much time, you know?”
