The Briefing with Jen Psaki

October 31, 2025; 9pm: With Election Day days away, the episode examines Trump’s late-campaign volatility, Republican efforts to manage his impact, and Pete Buttigieg’s case on costs and corruption.

Plus, Jen Psaki points out that the outrage that Donald Trump and his supporting Republicans are expressing over new New York Times reporting that Democrats had a hand in recruiting a candidate to the Alaska Senate race with the same name as the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan, rings hollow when Republicans also have a record of "ballot stacking" spoiler candidates, including in that very same race.

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October 29, 2026; 9pm: Jen Psaki breaks down the final days before the midterms, from Donald Trump’s canceled rallies and reported Iran war planning to shifting Senate races in Georgia and South Carolina. Guests John Ossoff, Mark Kelly, Ali Velshi and Annie Andrews discuss voting rights, national security, corruption and late-breaking turnout data.

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October 28, 2026; 9pm: Jen Psaki spotlights a surge of Democratic energy in the final days before the election, contrasting Barack Obama and Jon Ossoff’s Georgia rally message with Donald Trump’s Ohio rally and Republican attacks on Amy Acton. J.B. Pritzker, Dan Pfeiffer, and Dr. Amy Acton discuss the expanding Democratic map, key races in South Carolina and Ohio, and why decency, costs, corruption, and character are defining the closing argument.

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October 27, 2026; 9pm: Jen examines Trump’s Justice Department failures, election-related legal fights, Elon Musk’s role in Texas politics, and new reporting on Donald Trump Jr.’s Mongolia hunting trip with a Putin-linked Russian oligarch. Jamie Raskin, Gina Hinojosa, and Rahm Emanuel discuss accountability, corruption, and what the final week before the midterms could mean.

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October 26, 2026; 9pm: Jen breaks down Trump and allies’ closing midterm message, from attacks over Obama’s Cheesecake Factory joke to DOJ election lawsuits, Comey charges, and claims of corruption. Ben Rhodes, Mark Elias, and Adam Hamilton discuss anti-corruption politics, voting-rights legal fights, and why Kansas has become unexpectedly competitive.

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October 23, 2026; 9pm: Jen breaks down the Justice Department’s Alaska election lawsuit with Mark Elias, the fallout from Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad with Josh Turek, and Kansas Republicans crossing party lines against Roger Marshall with Bill Graves. The episode highlights how late-stage election fights, candidate controversies, and bipartisan defections are shaping key Senate and governor races.

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October 22, 2026; 9pm: This episode examines Trump-era corruption, attacks on women seeking power, election threats, and the midterm fight in Mississippi. Guests Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Sarah Longwell, and Scott Colom discuss misogyny, voter backlash, voting rights, and how Democrats can connect corruption to everyday costs.

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October 21, 2026; 9pm: Jen examines Republican closing messages on Vladimir Putin, Amy Acton, Camp Lejeune veterans, and alleged Trump corruption, with guests Wes Moore, Mitch Landrieu, and Miles Taylor. The key takeaway is that corruption and political cruelty are defining the final stretch before the midterm elections.

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October 20, 2026; 9pm: Jen covers rising Democratic turnout and fundraising, Republican attack politics, alleged Trump pardon influence, and Elon Musk’s role in Texas politics. Guests Senator Raphael Warnock, Liz Oyer, Mary Peltola, and Rep. Greg Casar weigh in on early voting, corruption, Alaska’s Senate race, and the midterm stakes.

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October 16, 2026; 9pm: Michael Steele examines Trump White House turmoil after Katie Zachariah’s short-lived press secretary role, the politics of corruption and campaign money, and questions over Starshield access for Ukraine. Guests George Conway, Chuck Rocha, Rob Flaherty, Mark Hertling, and Brian Poindexter connect the stories to midterm stakes and voter backlash.

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October 15, 2026 - Jen Psaki covers breaking news of a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, where three children, a teacher, and the suspected shooter were killed.

Michael Feinburg, former FBI special agent; Marc Santia, MS NOW investigative reporter; and Christopher O’Leary, former FBI counterterrorism official, join Jen to discuss the shooting and the investigation.

State Sen. Anthony Broadman joins Jen to give a fuller picture of how the Bend community is reeling from the tragedy.

State Rep. Justin Jones joins Jen to discuss the broader national response and how the country can move forward.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, joins Jen to discuss Donald Trump's DOJ lawsuit against California and its voter investigation.

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October 14, 2026 - Jen Psaki shares pieces of Donald Trump's speech at a rally in Arizona and makes the case that the media should not ignore the bizarre things he says and should ask the candidates who support him to explicitly endorse his statements.

Senator Mark Kelly joins to discuss Donald Trump's fitness to hold office.

Rep. Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, talks with Jen Psaki about the determination of House Democrats to follow through on investigations of members of the Trump administration even if their scandals already drove them out of office.

Katie Zacharia, Donald Trump's new press secretary, definitely appears to have graduated from law school, and has definitely referred to herself as a lawyer and even as "practicing," but whether she is or was licensed to do so is not at all clear and demands for answers are growing louder. Judd Legum, author of the "Popular Information" newsletter, joins to discuss his reporting.

Jim Messina, campaign manager for President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign joins to discuss what key indicators like ad spending and early voting are saying about how the midterm elections are shaping up.

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October 13, 2026 - Jen Psaki reacts to Katie Zacharia's first day as Donald Trump's press secretary, the mockery she made of the press briefing, and Donald Trump's efforts to normalize a compliant press.

Amb. Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, and Terry Moran, former senior national correspondent for ABC News discuss Zacharia's first day and Trump's war on the press.

Speaker Mike Johnson has a reason to gaslight his supporters about terrible polling data, but many Americans don't need a political bias to be skeptical of poll numbers. Could the consistent good news Democrats are seeing from the polls be true, or is there something poll watchers are overlooking? David Plouffe, former Obama campaign manager, joins to discuss.

Bill Hill, independent candidate for Congress from Alaska, talks with Jen about his race and the political climate that has Donald Trump stumping desperately in a state he won just two years ago.

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Everything is bigger in Texas, including the politics. With a few weeks left until the midterms, MS NOW anchors and fans gathered in Texas for a day of conversation and community. Now, we’re bringing the fun to you directly. Listen to a compilation special from Together In Texas: We the People 2026, featuring talks with top newsmakers and some of your favorite hosts, such as Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Jen Psaki, and Chris Hayes. This is part two of the special.

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Everything is bigger in Texas, including the politics. With a few weeks left until the midterms, MS NOW anchors and fans gathered in Texas for a day of conversation and community. Now, we’re bringing the fun to you directly. Listen to a compilation special from Together In Texas: We the People 2026, featuring talks with top newsmakers and some of your favorite hosts, such as Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Jen Psaki, and Chris Hayes. This is part one of the special.

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October 9, 2026 - Jen Psaki reports on Donald Trump giving Russian President Vladimir Putin another big boost by dropping sanctions to allow Russia to move more diesel fuel to market and suggested the U.S. would be among the buyers. Trump even thanked Putin even though the diesel release is not expected to be enough to change global diesel prices, but will yield billions for Russia to spend on its war against ostensible U.S. ally, Ukraine. Brett McGurk, former White House coordinator for the Middle East, joins to discuss.

Jen Psaki looks at newly obtained video of an ICE shooting in New York City and compares the information we can see so far to the official explanation of the shooting from the Department of Homeland Security. John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE under President Barack Obama joins to discuss.

Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, Amy Acton, talks with Jen Psaki about J.D. Vance's weird offer to meet her at a bar.

DNC Chair Ken Martin talks with Jen about the lawsuit to make Donald Trump pay for his own propaganda ads instead of using taxpayer money.

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October 8, 2026 - Jen Psaki explains that while a popular president may be able to carry a lackluster candidate with the help of local partisanship, the combination of Donald Trump's abysmal public approval and deeply flawed Republican candidates appears to not only be tipping races toward Democrats, but also changing the minds of voters who might have previously voted Republican by reflex.

Democratic candidate for Senate from Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, fresh from his debate with Mike Rogers, talks with Jen Psaki about how little Republicans have to run on when they are complicit and compliant with Donald Trump's failures and unpopular policies.

Senator Jon Ossoff, having also just finished a debate, talks with Jen Psaki about the character of his opponent, Mike Collins, and the urgent stakes of this year's midterm elections.

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October 7, 2026 - Jen Psaki relays new reporting from the Wall Street Journal that Kimberly Guilfoyle, former Fox News host, former Donald Trump Jr. fiance, and current U.S. ambassador to Greece, struggled with debt, begged a Trump donor for $100,000 to pay off her credit card bill, and offered to use her influence in the Trump administration to do favors for the donor ahead of her confirmation hearing.

Jen Psaki shares reporting from the New York Times that James Blair and Chris LaCivita, two key members of Donald Trump's poltiical machine, took some time away in the middle of the midterm crunch to offer their political insights to the far right government of Russia-aligned Republika Srpska. Republican Senator Thom Tillis offers his insights on the news.

Donald Trump learned first-hand why Republican candidates are having such a hard time in Texas when his rally was repeatedly interrupted by protesters. Johnny Garcia, Democratic candidate for Congress from Texas, talks with Jen Psaki about the political shift that has taken place in Texas and why Trump's scheme to win more seats by gerrymandering Texas does not appear to be playing out as Trump hoped.

Michael Lewis, author of the newly published "Blockers," talks with Jen about the people who tried to resist the DOGE destruction of the federal government.

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October 6, 2026 - Jen Psaski interviews Troy Jackson, Democratic candidate for Senate from Maine, fresh from his debate with his Republican opponent, Susan Collins, about the tight race, the political mood in Maine, and the liability Donald Trump has become for Republican candidates.

Jen Psaki talks with Jim Messina, campaign manager for Barack Obama 2012, Shawna Thomas, MS NOW political director, and Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, about whether the ProPublica report about Senator Susan Collins being caught up in a pay-to-play scheme is hurting her campaign for reelection, particularly in an atmosphere of pervasive Trump corruption.

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When Donald Trump boasts that a new steel plant is already under construction in Iowa, who better to check the veracity of that claim than the people in Iowa who live where the plant is supposedly being built? Jen Psaki shares examples of Donald Trump making promises on the campaign trail that have no basis in reality as far as the people most closely connected to the news can tell.

Former Senator Doug Jones talks with Jen about Donald Trump preaching to the choir campaign tour.

Jen Psaki considers Donald Trump accusation that news organizations are spreading misinformation about national security and takes a closer look at the information Trump is spreading, including an odd claim that Iran had drug factories in their nuclear factories when U.S. bombs blew them up. The White House was not helpful in shedding further light on Trump's claim.

Free speech attorney Ted Boutrous talks with Jen about progress in the lawsuit brought by news organizations against the Trump administration over the banning of members of the news media from the White House.

Fallon Gallagher, MS NOW legal affairs reporter, talks with Jen about breaking news of a new filing in the White House press ban case.

Jen Psaki relays new reporting in The Atlantic about the lengths to which FBI Director Kash Patel will go to win Donald Trump's favor even if it means neglecting the FBI's national security responsibilities or interfering in the midterm elections.

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