Jen Psaki

Jen Psaki is a political communications expert and commentator who served as White House press secretary during the first two years of the administration of Pres. Joe Biden. Her poised press briefings attracted considerable attention during the volatile period after the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack and amid the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. She is the host of the MSNBC program Inside with Jen Psaki.

Early life

Psaki was born in New York City to Eileen D. Medvey, a psychotherapist, and James R. Psaki, a real estate developer. She and her two younger sisters grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and she went to Greenwich High School, where she was a competitive swimmer. She graduated from the College of William & Mary in 2000 with degrees in English and sociology.

Early career

Psaki has served in a wide variety of media and political communications roles throughout her career. Among them was communications director for Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley of New York from 2005 to 2006. She later worked as traveling press secretary for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008, followed by positions as deputy press secretary, deputy communications director, and White House communications director during the Obama administration. Before her appointment as Biden’s press secretary, she was a CNN political contributor from 2017 to 2020.

Tenure in the White House

When Psaki was tapped as White House press secretary, forming part of the first all-female senior White House communications team, the Biden administration was trying to distance itself from the conflict, controversy, and misinformation that had come to be associated with the administration of Pres. Donald Trump.

During her first briefing, Psaki said that her goal was to bring “truth and transparency back to the briefing room.” Psaki’s calm demeanor on camera—along with her nearly daily appearances during the first 15 months of the Biden presidency—earned her fans on social media and among Democratic strategists and leaders.

Her term, however, was at times marked by controversies, particularly following the fraught 2021 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, during which at least 170 Afghan civilians as well as 13 U.S. troops were killed. Psaki has been criticized for misrepresenting aspects of Biden’s conduct during the operation and its aftermath, including her claim, published in her book Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World (2024), that he never checked his watch during the interment ceremony for the fallen troops, a contention that reporters and fact-checkers at Axios, Snopes, and USA Today disputed. Republican lawmakers also requested her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee regarding the troops’ removal from Afghanistan.

Move to MSNBC

Psaki attracted additional critical attention when it was revealed that she was in talks with MSNBC to host a new program, a position she accepted after resigning from the White House. Some NBC News staffers objected to the increasingly editorial direction of programming at MSNBC, while other commentators noted that Psaki’s move to the network represented a larger, revolving door problem: former officials from both the Republican and Democratic parties taking jobs in the press, raising questions about the objectivity of mainstream media representations of political events.

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But if, in the wake of Biden’s poor June 2024 debate performance against Trump, Psaki’s former White House colleagues were expecting a positive spin on the situation for her former boss, they were disappointed. Psaki, while expressing her admiration for Biden, was harsh in her criticism. She wrote on MSNBC’s website, “I’m not going to sugarcoat it: President Joe Biden’s debate performance on Thursday night was very bad, especially the first 30 minutes (otherwise known as the part more people likely watched).…There is no question the next few weeks are going to be rocky for the Biden campaign. There will be ongoing discussions about the possibility of an open convention, and about replacing Biden on the ticket.”

Her MSNBC program, Inside with Jen Psaki, which began in March 2023, airs twice a week. In February 2025, as part of a shake-up at MSNBC, it was announced that Psaki would host a new prime-time show Tuesday through Friday.