Fox News hosts and pundits are absolutely apoplectic over MSNBC star Jen Psaki’s recent remarks about Usha Vance, accusing the former Biden spokeswoman of “slander” for mocking Vance’s marriage to the vice president and joking that the Second Lady should send a sign for help.
“She should apologize,” Fox & Friends host Lawrence Jones declared Wednesday morning while the other hosts described Psaki’s comments as “disturbing.”
In a recent appearance on the liberal podcast I’ve Had It, Psaki – a primetime host at MSNBC who once served as the White House press secretary in the Joe Biden administration – spoke at length about how she was more worried about JD Vance than Donald Trump.
During her conversation with hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan, Psaki noted that the veep “wants to be president more than anything else” while claiming both Vance’s youth and ambition make him “scarier in certain ways” than the 79-year-old president.
“He’s willing to do anything to get there,” she declared, labeling the 41-year-old vice president a “little Manchurian candidate” who is “agile in the sense that he is a chameleon who makes himself into whatever he thinks the audience wants to hear from him.”
During the back-and-forth over the vice president’s political future, Psaki brought up the second lady and snarked that she wonders if their marriage is in a good place.
“I always wonder what’s going on in the mind of his wife,” Psaki quipped. “Like, are you OK? Please blink four times. Come over here – we’ll save you.”
That moment soon went viral in the conservative corners of social media, drawing predictable rage from prominent MAGA influencers and commentators.
“Unhinged Jen Psaki is now smearing JD Vance, suggesting that his wife, Usha, wants to leave her husband and offers to ‘save’ her,” anti-trans social media account Libs of TikTok – which is run by Trump ally Chaiya Raichik – posted on X. “@MSNBC should be ashamed to pay her salary.”
With others fuming about Psaki’s “disgusting comments” while claiming they were “an insult to women who are in actual bad marriages,” Fox News commentator Joe Concha declared online that the ex-Biden flack was “not a good person” before taking his grievances to the airwaves.
“This is a national primetime host and former White House press secretary. She is engaging in outright slander,” Concha exclaimed on Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox & Friends First, before invoking MAGA’s favorite insult for Psaki.
“I mean, Peppermint Patty here is just making stuff up and has zero idea what she’s talking about,” the Fox News pundit huffed. “She can’t argue about policy, so she’s resorting to fabricated personal attacks.”
Moments after derisively comparing the MSNBC host to a cartoon character, meanwhile, Concha lamented that it’s “such a toxic time right now” and how “we just have personal attacks and ad hominem stuff.”
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The hosts of the president’s favorite morning show also took their turns slamming Psaki, with the Fox & Friends crew describing the remarks as “so nasty” and “disturbing” before Jones demanded an apology from the rival cable news host.
“I would not hold your breath,” co-host Brian Kilmeade – who recently issued his own mea culpa over his inflammatory remarks about homeless people – reacted.
During Tuesday’s telecast of America’s Newsroom, right-wing radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt – who is also a Fox News contributor – asserted that Psaki likely felt she was in a “safe space” to take shots at the Vances because she was on a podcast that appeals to the “far-left edge of the Democratic Party.”
Hewitt, who was previously a paid commentator for MSNBC, claimed that Psaki’s remarks indicated that the “left is out of ideas” as they have “no substance” and can only resort to “insults.” He further insisted that appearing on the I’ve Had It podcast was merely a way for Psaki to “engage clicks to let people know she is still” at MSNBC as it transitions to the upcoming MS NOW rebrand.
Amid the right-wing media backlash over Psaki’s comments, the White House also made sure to add its voice to the mix. White House communications director Steven Cheung, who regularly replicates his boss’ bombastic “lib owning” tone, blasted Psaki’s comments while branding her his own Trumpian nickname.
“Jen Psuki must be transferring her own personal issues onto others,” he Cheung wrote on X, adding that 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.”
Meanwhile, during Wednesday’s segments about Psaki, the network’s hosts suggested that conservatives and Fox News personalities largely avoid taking shots at political spouses or vice presidents.
“I think another rule in general is don't go after the spouse. Why would you do that? It is not helpful,” anchor Dana Perino said during her conversation with Hewitt.
Additionally, towards the end of the Fox & Friends First discussion with Concha, co-host Todd Piro pondered the media reaction if Kayleigh McEnany – a former Trump spokesperson who now hosts multiple Fox News shows – would have “attacked Kamala Harris.”
However, the conservative cable giant’s stars have long gone after the wives and families of Democratic presidents and elected officials. Michelle Obama, for instance, was a regular target of Fox News and the conservative media ecosystem throughout her husband’s presidency and in the years since.
On top of that, before John Fetterman became Fox News’ favorite Democrat, the network’s right-wing opinion hosts regularly took aim at his wife Giselle during Fetterman’s Senate run in 2022 – suggesting that she was pushing her husband to stay in the race following his stroke.
“There was the effort to frame this as some brave and vulnerable act. Not anything that would be considered craven or a cruel political calculation by a stage wife and political nihilist,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham declared at the time, while her colleague Jesse Watters wondered if “the bisexual Brazilian immigrant [had] been vetted.”
As for McEnany, she has regularly lobbed attacks at Harris, saying just last month that the former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee refused to take accountability for her own “incompetence.”
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