WATCH: Psaki Says Biden Admin ‘Gleeful and Giddy’ Over Midterms In Late-Night Update From Inside White House
Former White House Press Secretary and current MSNBC host-in-waiting Jen Psaki gave late-night viewers the scoop from inside President Joe Biden’s administration after she’d spoken to her ex-colleagues about the “gleeful and giddy” mood over the midterms.
An MSNBC election team led by Rachel Maddow covered Tuesday night’s midterms well into Wednesday morning, delivering every detail of what has turned out to be a disappointing night for Republicans.
But as the clock neared two in the morning, Maddow and her studio panel weren’t exactly depressed about the situation. Maddow called the unfolding results “a huge political endorsement of Joe Biden as president of the United States,” and asked Psaki what the White House can do with such results. Psaki predicted chicken fingers, French fries, and ice cream to start with:
RACHEL MADDOW: This is obviously a huge political endorsement of Joe Biden as president of the United States. And I know people are going to give me a hard time for saying that, but I say it in this specific context. First term presidents always lose a ton of seats in the midterms. We have had, you know, one exception to that in the post-World War Two era, and it was after right after 911, before tonight. And, you know, it may be that the Democrats end up losing some seats overall. We don’t know. But they’re not going to be losing 60 seats, 50 seats, 40 seats, 30 seats, which is a more normal night. Just in terms of this historical arc here, in terms of, in terms of what this looks like in political science textbooks. And so what does the, what does the Biden White House do with that? The Biden approval rating is basically billboarded on all Washington-based punditry, as if that’s the end of the story about his political power.
JEN PSAKI: T-shirts and mugs, may they burn in a fire!
RACHEL MADDOW: Yes. And so and so how do they how do they, what do they do with this?
JEN PSAKI: I think the big take– I mean, the president obviously, I think will feel this way, I have been in touch with the White House. They are giddy and gleeful, as they should be, about where things are sitting right now, Rachel.
But also candidates, regardless of what the outcome was, candidates were not running against the Biden agenda. If the Republicans had won back a bunch of seats, it wasn’t because Democrats were running away from the Inflation Reduction Act. Right? And doing something about climate change, or building bridges and fixing roads or running away from Biden saying, I want you to codify Roe and protect a woman’s right to choose. The takeaway to me is, this is the right agenda.
The Democrats ran on this agenda. It was the right agenda. And I think a lot of these fights, including abortion, including fights about what to do about inflation and bring down costs, will continue. And this agenda is the right one. And that’s the good news for Democrats.
But yes, I can tell you, they are gleeful. They’re probably ordering chicken fingers and French fries in the White House. That’s what I used to do when I was there to celebrate a little bit. And this is a very different foreign trip, which they’re leaving on in two days, that they expected to go on.
RACHEL MADDOW: Yeah, tomorrow’s like the ice cream social day.
JEN PSAKI: Right, and the President especially.
Watch above via MSNBC.
