The Briefing with Jen Psaki
Everywhere and All at Once: A Path Forward for Democrats
Tue, 29 Apr 2025
Jen Psaki welcomes Governor J.B. Pritzker, who gave a speech yesterday in New Hampshire lambasting Trump, criticizing “do-nothing” Democrats and calling for mass mobilization against the growing number of unprecedented attacks the Trump administration has launched against migrants, universities, and the American economy. They discuss the administration’s stance on migrants, which hits home for Pritzker personally, as the child of Ukrainian immigrants. Jen also speaks with The Atlantic's Ashley Parker, who interviewed Trump in the run-up to his 100-day milestone. Check out our social pages below:https://twitter.com/InsideWithPsakihttps://www.instagram.com/InsideWithPsaki/https://www.tiktok.com/@insidewithpsakihttps://www.msnbc.com/jen-psakihttps://bsky.app/profile/insidewithpsaki.msnbc.com
Chapter 1: What did Governor J.B. Pritzker say in his speech?
OK, the first thing I want to tell you tonight is that Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is going to join me live. And you may have seen the speech. You may have seen clips. But he gave quite a speech last night in New Hampshire. He attacked the Trump administration with some of what I would consider the most direct and clear language we've heard from any elected Democrat in a very long time.
He also went after what he called do-nothing Democrats, which was a very interesting and important part of the conversation, what it means. He called for mass protests and for mass mobilization and basically for disruption.
Now, if you haven't seen that speech, and you may not have, it happened on a Sunday, we want you to see that speech, and we're going to play a lot of it throughout the course of the next hour. And we're also going to talk to Governor Pritzker about it, including the do-nothing Democrats.
because I really do think it raises a lot of important questions about how Democrats should be approaching this moment.
In the story, in my view, of what the opposition has done across these first 100 days of the Trump administration, and frankly, what they're going to do moving forward, is every bit as important to focus on as what the Trump administration has done and what they're going to do moving forward.
And one of the things I've noticed is that the disagreement among Democrats about how to approach this moment actually isn't really an ideological one. I mean, yes, of course, there are debates and disagreements on big issues on the margins and even some bigger than the margins. Those are important, too.
But Democrats generally agree that taking a wrecking ball to the economy with a half-cocked trade war is a bad idea, as most people agree.
Democrats agree that letting the world's richest man, you know who I'm talking about, and his band of weird interns rifle through the federal government and fire people who answer the phones at Social Security offices, people who track extreme weather events, people who research cancer, is a bad idea.
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Chapter 2: How are Democrats responding to Trump's administration?
Democrats agree that mistakenly shipping a legal resident to a notorious foreign prison is outrageous because it is. And deporting U.S. citizens as young as two years old is appalling because it is. Democrats agree that abusing your power to go after law firms and the media and universities is the stuff of tin pot dictators. They agree on that, all of that.
So the values in that sense are all pretty aligned. But there are what I consider, for the most part, some healthy disagreements about how to respond to all of that, including what issues to focus on and elevate, what tactics should be used to stand up to the actions of the Trump administration. What's effective?
I mean, there are some Democrats who appear to have chosen at this moment the age old strongly worded letter route.
He is using anti-Semitism, and it's appropriate to go after specific incidents of anti-Semitism, as a pretext to hurt these great universities. It's going to hurt every American. So we sent him a very strong letter just the other day asking eight very strong questions about why this isn't just a pretext.
Well, you'll let us know if you get a response to that letter. I do want to say you said you hope that— I will.
So Chuck Schumer sent a strongly worded letter to the administration about their attacks on Harvard with, by the way, eight strongly worded questions, apparently. Watch out, world. Sounds like it's going to change things.
Now, in contrast, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz decided to actually go to Harvard University tonight for a conversation about the future of the Democratic Party and what Democrats should do to push back on the Trump administration. What tactics, what things, what policies can people be talking about? There's more contrast, too.
I mean, James Carville, as we all know, suggested that Democrats should essentially roll over and play dead and let the Trump administration implode. Others like Senator Bernie Sanders and AOC have had rallies with tens of thousands of people across red states. Others like Cory Booker have spoken on the Senate floor for 25 hours to rail against what this administration is doing to the country.
Others, like Chris Van Hollen, have traveled to foreign countries at risk to highlight the lack of due process for his constituent who was shipped there by mistake. And look, I do think we all need a little humility in this moment. Of course we do. Because it's hard to know what's going to work.
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Chapter 3: What strategies should Democrats adopt against Trump?
To Trump, he can propel things to be true, even when they aren't. To Trump, everyone and every institution will bend to him. To Trump, he's all-powerful, immune from mistakes, and he will always come out on top in his view. But just because Trump thinks it doesn't mean it's true. That's what we're seeing in Poland. That's what we're watching at protests.
That's what we're hearing in speeches, like the one JB Pritzker gave last night. And that's what we're hearing from people across the country. Here's what Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin told The Atlantic, quote, "'I can't tell you how many Trump voters have said to me, like, "'Look, I voted for him to make the economy work.
"'I did not vote for all this craziness, "'and I certainly didn't vote, for instance, for cuts to the VA. "'That is not what they signed up for.'" The Atlantic's Ashley Parker, one of the reporters who interviewed Trump in the Oval Office and then again on the phone, which is part of the story, is standing by and she joins me live in just 60 seconds.
Hello.
As promised, joining me now, fresh off her interview with Donald Trump, is staff writer for The Atlantic, Ashley Parker. Ashley, it's great to see you. I mean, one of the many reasons, one, you're an excellent writer, but I also think these interviews, especially the Q&As, do give you insight. You've also been covering for him for a long time.
And it tells you some things, but that's why I was looking forward to talking to you. One of the things I think was really interesting, having been on the receiving end of a lot of these pitches myself, first of all, I think you give way too much credit to how extensive the pitches are. Usually the pitches are like, hey, it's our turn to have a News of the Day interview with the president.
It's not typically. But you spend time in your story talking about how this transpired and the Oval Office interview as well as the phone call. Why did you do that? And what do you think it tells people about Trump and how he operates?
So we thought the backstory was revealing, in part because before we got into the Oval Office for this interview with the president that occurred last Thursday, there were actually two truth social posts attacking us. By name. By name, quite derogatorily. And so we thought just this entire process revealed something about this president and this White House. So, for instance, we do this pitch.
We make the appeal. We're doing a cover story. Will the president participate? We're told essentially, yes, he's going to do it. An interview is tentatively scheduled. And as it gets known to a wider circle of people in his orbit—
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Chapter 4: What are the main criticisms of Trump's first 100 days?
Listen, I understand the tendency to give in to despair right now, but despair is an indulgence that we cannot afford in the times upon which history turns. Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.
They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box.
These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. I told you you'd want to hear that speech. You're not going to want to go anywhere because Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker joins me next. We're back after a very quick break.
Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have.
I just had to play that part one more time. And joining me now is Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Governor, it's great to see you. That was quite a speech last night. We've been trying to play parts of it for the audience.
I just wanted to start by asking, I mean, in my experience with big speeches like this, they kind of come from a fire in the heart of the person delivering them about something they really want to get off their chest. What did you tell your team who wrote the first draft about what you wanted people who watched it to take away from it?
Thanks, Jen. And look, let me be clear. We're in a perilous moment in this country. There is, I mean, tumult around everyone in this country that we've had our economic rights taken away. We've had our civil rights taken away. And it's only been 100 days. And it's time. People have to stand up, speak out.
And I wanted my team to make sure that what we're conveying to people is that they do have power, even in this moment when they feel powerless, where there is a Congress that has given in entirely to a president who's, frankly, taken us off the rails and who lied to the American people when he ran and won in November. He told us he was going to lower prices for people.
He told us that he was going to make the world a safer place, that he was going to bring peace in Ukraine. And the fact is he's done none of those things, and indeed the opposite of that. Now what he's doing is raising prices and taxes on middle-class Americans, working-class Americans, in order to give a massive tax cut to the wealthiest people in the country.
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