Newsmax reporter crumbles after Psaki busts her absurd “many people are saying” question

One of the hallmarks of the Biden administration’s daily press conferences has been the utterly asinine and absurd attempts of right-wing rags like Newsmax to elicit some sort of gotcha! moment from Press Secretary Jen Psaki and her complete refusal to play along in any way, shape or form.

Today’s exchange was particularly ridiculous, as Newsmax‘s Emerald Robinson attempted to justify an entirely baseless narrative on the basis of Trump’s infamous “many people are saying” bit.

“Given the number of former Obama officials that are now in this Biden administration and the president’s relatively light schedule, there’s a growing perception that this is just the third term of President Obama. What do you have to say to people who say that?” asks Robinson.

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“Who is saying that?” demands Psaki, to which Robinson replies “you hear that a lot in the media.” Pressing for evidence, Psaki asks “who in the media?”

Caught red-handed without anything to back her up, Robinson is forced to lamely go with “different people” and then immediately pivoted to an unrelated attempt to smear the president, insinuating that he isn’t working hard enough and letting Vice-President Harris take the reins — again, according to the observations of these nebulous “many people.”

“Well…there were lots of questions about when you had Japanese Prime Minister Suda here in the one and only so far in person bilateral meeting, it was vice-president Kamala Harris who greeted the Prime Minister. Many people found that odd, she’s already taking one-on-one calls with key allies like Prime Minister Morrison and Justin Trudeau,” asked Robinson.

“Well, it’s hard to react when I don’t know what people you’re talking about. I will say that the President met with the Prime Minister as you know, had a full meeting and full press conference afterward and they even shared a meal…” said Psaki, who fielded one more question attempting to discredit the administration’s COVID-19 response before shutting her down with an “I’m sorry, Emerald, I think you’ve had plenty of time today.”

Watch it here:

Natalie Dickinson

Natalie is a staff writer for the Washington Press. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2010 and has been freelance blogging and writing for progressive outlets ever since.