Outgoing White House press secretary Jen Psaki joined reporters Thursday for a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, during which she fielded a number of questions about her tenure in the Biden administration and delivered some final advice to her successor, Karine Jean-Pierre.
The Christian Science Monitor traditionally hosts these conversations with outgoing press secretaries on the “eve of their departure,” according to bureau chief Linda Feldman, and Thursday’s discussion covered a wide range of topics, including Psaki’s biggest White House regrets, the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, President Joe Biden’s lack of media appearances, her often-adversarial relationship with Fox News’s Peter Doocy and more.
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“Karine is going to bring her own style, her own grace, her own brilliance and experience to the job, as every press secretary should,” Psaki said of her deputy when asked if she had any specific advice for Jean-Pierre. “You always want to be evolving and doing the job better.”
“I would say that the most important thing you can spend your time doing is two things: knowing exactly where the president is and thinking, where he is on an issue and where he’s going on an issue, and asking him a lot of questions,” she continued. “The second piece I would say is it is not about — and this is just broad advice to everybody, right, who’s doing this job in the future — this is not about reading talking points from a book.”
Earlier in the conversation, Psaki talked about how her “greatest joy is being able to debunk things” and explained how sometimes her briefing binder is necessary to pull relevant statistics and quotes, but she added that the press secretary must become an expert to explain policy properly to the public.
“It is about understanding policies to a level of depth that you can explain them to your mother-in-law, to your friend on the street, and answer the ninth question reporters may have about them. So the other piece of advice I would give is attend as many policy meetings as you can and your own reporter in the building about what’s happening and where things are going and why an issue is the way an issue is,” she expressed. “It doesn’t mean you have to share everything with the public or that you can sometimes because it’s classified or whatever, but I’m always a believer that you want to know absolutely everything. I know every press secretary does not feel this way, but you want to know everything so that you can figure out how to explain it publicly.”
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Though she did not provide Jean-Pierre with a rubric for dealing with Doocy and Fox News, Psaki did tell reporters that she will miss their exchanges.
“I think we have a very good professional relationship, and I understand that he’s coming there to ask questions every day that are important to report and the outlet he works for, and I respect that and we have healthy debates and discussions,” she said. “Doesn’t mean I agree with his line of questioning on most days, but I think that I’ve called on him every day he’s been there or a Fox person, Jacqui [Heinrich], who’s been there a lot as well, and I think sending the message to the country that we’re not focused here on a fight with Fox. We’re focused here on the work of the American people.”
