Jen Psaki can’t resign fast enough.
Not that the mainstream media ever really holds her to account for her arrogance, condescension, sarcasm, or out-of-touch responses to the average American’s pain.
Hey, at least she fully channels her boss.
A few fumbles would be understandable; White House press secretary is a notoriously tough job with a high level of burnout.
But Psaki, a former competitive swimmer raised in Greenwich, Conn., seems to never have encountered people living paycheck to paycheck, or worried about how they’ll feed, clothe or educate their kids — amid a global pandemic, no less.
If anything, her statements seem aimed at one cohort alone: high-earning, highly educated liberals and progressives just like her, ones who think anyone on the other side is too stupid to acknowledge.
Last October, as the nation confronted unprecedented supply chain issues affecting not just the holidays but food and medical supplies, Psaki sarcastically minimized it all as “the tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed.”
Yes, to Psaki, and the Biden administration, the supply chain crisis was down to a Peloton backlog, a minor inconvenience afflicting the crabby 1 percent.
After White House chief of staff Ronald Klain doubled down, the RNC’s Tommy Pigott tweeted, “Struggling to pay for fuel, food and housing because of rising prices is not a ‘high class problem.’ Biden is making everyone worse off, but instead of stopping the damage, their strategy is to try to gaslight Americans.”
Indeed, gaslighting is Psaki’s M.O. Here she is on our withdrawal from Afghanistan, days after a 17-year-old boy fell to his death from a departing US C-17 transport plane, huddled masses below clinging to the aircraft as it took off:
“I would not say that this has been anything but a success.”
“His legs and arms were gone,” the boy’s brother told Vice News after finding the remains. “I brought them back myself.”
Fun fact: During his presidency, Barack Obama passed Psaki over twice for this job.
Wonder why.
Even if she remained this tone-deaf, Psaki might be more tolerable were her answers not dripping with disdain and superiority.
Those reporters who challenge her narrative often “don’t understand” how complicated any given issue is.
And no reporter is off limits — doesn’t matter how conservative or liberal their outlet.
To a Bloomberg reporter, last February, who asked if President Biden will maintain former President Donald Trump’s Space Force: “Wow. The Space Force. It’s the plane of today … I’m happy to check with our Space Force point of contact. I don’t know who that is.”
After The Post spotted three planes packed with underage migrants landing in the dead of night here and in Florida, to Fox’s Peter Doocy: “We are talking about early flights. Earlier than you might like.”
In December, NPR’s Mara Liasson questioned why the administration couldn’t do what the UK had done with COVID tests and “make them free and give them out and have them available everywhere?”
Psaki: “Should we just send one to every American?”
After the predictable fallout, The Intercept reporting that the experts nearly unanimously said Yes, we can and we should, the Biden administration announced that every American household would get four tests mailed for free.
Now, I’d hate for Psaki to find me condescending. But may I remind her: Americans have been in a suspended state of high anxiety going on three years now. It’s only getting worse. Sarcasm doesn’t help.
Is COVID in the rearview? Looks like it, but who knows? And even if it is, we have record inflation that’s only worsening, gas prices nearing $5 a gallon, Russia’s imminent invasion of Ukraine, fraying bonds with our allies, increasing crime and homelessness at home, and an overall sense that no one’s in control of anything, least of all our president.
One in 7 Americans, Forbes reports, now live paycheck to paycheck.
Last month, Bloomberg’s Justin Sink asked about Biden’s cratering support in the polls.
“So,” he said, “the sense is that things are going well? There’s no need for change right now?”
Psaki couldn’t help herself.
“I think that, having worked in a White House before” — wow — “you do hard things in the White House. We could certainly propose legislation to see if people support bunny rabbits and ice cream, but that wouldn’t be very rewarding to the American people.”
It’s this kind of haughtiness that got Psaki photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vogue and lovingly profiled by the New York Times Magazine, which claimed she “has tamped down the vitriol that colored news briefings during the Trump administration.”
Vitriol is just another word for contempt. It’s clear that Psaki — and her boss, whose most common answer to tough questions is “C’mon, man” — are full of it.
Americans frustrated with the administration’s lack of progress should, Psaki recently told the ladies of “The View,” “Feel those emotions, go to a kickboxing class and have a margarita.”
This answer is “the tragedy of the treadmill” redux. I couldn’t say it better than Stephanie Gallardo, who is running for Congress from Washington state.
“Unfortunately,” Gallardo replied, “kickboxing classes average $150 so are $149 outside of my budget. Drinking a margarita at 11:37 a.m. on a Friday doesn’t seem advisable.”
Psaki announced she’ll be leaving her post sometime this year. If Biden hopes to turn things around, he’d do well to find a spokesperson who feels our pain — rather than one who mocks it.
