MSNBC host Jen Psaki made a mocking comment about Usha Vance’s marriage to the vice president, joking that she should send a subtle signal if she needs saving.
Psaki, who was White House press secretary under President Joe Biden, referred to the second lady while discussing Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday’s episode of the I’ve Had It podcast.
“I always wonder what’s going on in the mind of his wife,” Psaki said. “Like, are you OK? Please blink four times. Come over here, we’ll save you.”
Psaki, who hosts The Briefing with Jen Psaki on MSNBC, made the remark while commenting on all the ways that she considers JD Vance to be “scarier” than President Donald Trump, claiming that the vice president “wants to be president more than anything else.”
“He’s willing to do anything to get there,” Psaki said of the 41-year-old’s political ambitions, before noting that “he’s scarier in certain ways” than Trump, 79.
“He’s young and ambitious and agile in the sense that he is a chameleon who makes himself into whatever he thinks the audience wants to hear from him,” Psaki said.
Hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan, who achieved fame on the Bravo series Sweet Home Alabama, called Vance the “smoky eye sociopath” on their podcast, referring to the vice president’s apparent penchant for eyeliner.
Welch suggested to Psaki that “biology is going to catch up with Trump” and that Vance has no “rizz,” a slang term for charisma, which may impede his succession plan.
“JD Vance is... in some ways good-ish on paper if you like what he believes in. But I don’t know that he can take the whole [MAGA] movement with him. He’s got no rizz, right?” Psaki added, agreeing with Welch. “And he’s just a little odd... Trump’s odd in a different way. So I’m skeptical of that.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Vance’s office for comment.
White House director of communications Steven Cheung shared a clip of Psaki discussing Vance and his wife, referring to the host as “Psuki” in his X post.
“Jen Psuki must be transferring her own personal issues onto others,” Cheung wrote, saying she is “a dumba-- who has no comprehension of the truth and has to overcompensate for her lack of talent by saying untrue things. Circle back on that, moron.”
During the podcast, Psaki also called Vance “the little Manchurian candidate,” a reference to a politician being used as a puppet by an enemy power. The term comes from the plot of a political thriller released in 1959 and later turned into a movie.
The MSNBC host also claimed the Trump administration was attempting to “manipulate” elections by ordering troops into city streets and electoral redistricting ahead of next year’s midterms.
“This is all about making it harder to participate in the process, making it harder for Democrats and for people who want to support these candidates and even just people who want to check on the power of Trump to participate,” Psaki said.
She noted that Trump was “taking the military underneath his wing” and attempting to control media access to the government.
“They’re completely reshaping the whole press room and who covers the president,” Psaki said. “All of this is consolidation of power and consolidation of information to the public. And that’s what it’s about, maintaining power.”
