The Briefing with Jen Psaki

Jen Psaki takes a closer look at how former weekend right-wing cable news host Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's defense secretary, is gutting the top tiers of the U.S. military while doing a poor job handling Donald Trump's inexplicable war on Iran, and running down the U.S. military with wasteful, ill-considered decisions. Rahm Emanuel, former Obama White House chief of staff, discusses the crisis of Pete Hegseth's leadership. 

Rahm Emanual, former Obama White House chief of staff, makes an emphatic case to Jen Psaki that the Democratic Socialists of America are their own party, separate from the Democratic Party, and should be treated as such, including for primary elections.

Priya Sridhar, MS NOW Pentagon correspondent, reports from Thailand on the USS Lincoln coming to port.

Rep. Pat Ryan talks with Jen Psaki about keeping voting secure for Americans and safe from Donald Trump. 

Retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, a Democratic candidate for Congress, and Rep. Chris Deluzio, talk with Jen Psaki about how the House and Senate should be using their oversight responsibilities to hold Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth to account for their shambolic handling of the war in Iran and their mismanagement of the U.S. military, and why Americans need to take Republicans out of power in Congress if they want to restore checks and balances to Trump's power.

Jen Psaki looks at how voters in Tarrant County, Texas are livid over a party-line vote to remove dozens of polling sites for this year's midterm elections. And House Democrats are focused on a newly exposed scheme to use the U.S. Postal Service to disrupt mail-in voting. Rep. Robert Garcia joins to discuss efforts by Democrats to shine a bright light on Donald Trump's mail-in ballot scheme to keep voters informed and hold U.S.P.S. officials accountable for any deviations from the law.

Troy Jackson, Maine Democratic candidate for Senate, talks with Jen Psaki about messaging in the campaign.

Jen Psaki looks at how JD Vance is trying to minimize Donald Trump's war against Iran even as there appears to be a new escalation of fighting and Pete Hegseth is reportedly extending deployments in the Middle East. But as criticism of the administration grows louder, so does criticism of Republicans in charge of Congress as well as military leaders who are not pushing back on Trump's recklessness. Frank Kendall, former Secretary of the U.S. Air Force joins to discuss.

Jen Psaki looks at how Elon Musk's tone deafness on issues like data centers and his evident antisemitism, not to mention his image as a villain to many Americans since his disastrous implementation of DOGE at the start of Trump's second term, makes him a likely political liability for Republicans even as he hopes to help them financially. Jesse Lehrich and Rob Flaherty, co-hosts of the "Nobody Knows Anything" show, join to discuss.

Rep. Joe Neguse talks with Jen about Donald Trump's efforts to corrupt mail-in voting.

Jessica Mackler, president of EMILYs list, talks with Jen Psaki about the life and legacy of Gloria Steinem.

Jen Psaki points out that Republicans should rethink their new talking points that 2026 is an election of common sense versus crazy when they are running so many candidates who would seem to fall into the crazy category.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker talks with Jen Psaki about how corruption has become a hallmark of the Trump administration, and why the only road to accountability is with a Congress controlled by Democrats.

Jen Psaki looks at new polling showing that Donald Trump's extreme upopularity is driving down the number of people who identify as Republicans and driving up the number of people who identify as Democrats. David Plouffe, former campaign manager for Barack Obama, joins to discuss what this means in terms of the midterm election and whether these numbers will be echoed in voting patterns.