White House media secretary Jen Psaki might be going from the White House to mainstream television.
Psaki, known for her fights with reporters in the White House news room, is reportedly being looked at by top executives at CNN and MSNBC — and she might become “the next Rachel Maddow.”
Just months after Biden’s inauguration, Psaki put an expiration date on her time in the White House, saying to David Axelrod that she wanted to leave the Biden White House in 2022.
“I think it will be time for someone else to have this role in a year from now,” she told him on Axelrod’s podcast just last May.
Now, almost one year after those comments, top cable news leaders are looking for Psaki when she leaves the White House. According to journalist Dylan Byers, Psaki met with executives from CNN and MSNBC this month, presumably to talk about joining their networks.
Byers said that CNN co-president Amy Entelis traveled to D.C. this month to have a “top-secret recruitment assignment” with Psaki. Then, under one week later, MSNBC President Rashida Jones and NBC News Chairman Cesar Conde also went to Washington with the same mission.
What happens to Maddow?
The MSNBC anchor announced her hiatus from the network just last month. Maddow said in the past that she wanted to scale down from the grind of hosting a daily show, especially with the weight of being MSNBC’s top primetime host.
And even with Maddow’s hiatus being scheduled to end in April, an official end-date is not set, the NY Times reported, and it could extend beyond that time. According to Byers, Psaki might become the next Maddow, by which he is meaning a well-spoken liberal host of a top TV show.
Both CNN and MSNBC are in need of fresh talent. With CNN plagued by recent scandals and Maddow’s future now in question, Byers said that “Psaki’s star power could change the narrative for whichever network gets her.”
Any negotiations are too early to discuss, and Psaki would not reveal signing a contract, the NY Post reported.
Prior to joining the Joe Biden White House, she worked at CNN and in the Obama White House.
