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The Briefing with Jen Psaki

Panicked by bad news, Trump makes elections power grab and leaves staff sputtering with excuses

The Briefing with Jen Psaki

MS NOW, Jen Psaki

Politics, News, Ms Now, Versant Media, Versant

4.4975 Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jen Psaki shows how an onslaught of bad news and bad polls for Donald Trump is making him more desperate to control voting and the outcomes of elections in the U.S., and he is actively taking steps to do so while his staff struggle to find alternative explanations for what is going on.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

So for a guy who cares about holding onto power pretty much more than anything else,

0:06.3

Donald Trump cannot possibly be feeling good right now.

0:09.5

I mean, this was this scene just two nights ago at a town hall for one of the most vulnerable House Republicans,

0:17.1

Congressman Mike Lawler.

0:20.3

For instance, the five-year-old boy that was detained, that father left his child.

0:34.1

He ran away from his child.

0:46.9

And the ICE agents were actually protecting the child.

0:56.2

Hey, bro, you can leave now. Goodbye. Goodbye. We won't proceed until you're gone. Goodbye. Thank you. Thank you. May.

1:00.0

Justice.

1:01.0

Change.

1:02.0

Che!

1:03.0

Chey!

1:04.0

So that went well from Mike Luller.

1:13.9

I mean, also obviously yelling, bro, you can leave is something you should do when you're trying to build support in your community.

1:20.8

And you're literally in a town hall in the district you're trying to win.

1:24.0

But he's not asking me for advice.

1:25.3

Anyway, that is a seat Republicans desperately need to

1:28.6

hold onto this November if they want to keep control of the House. It's a super tiny margin.

1:34.8

And Mike Lawler is a guy who won back in 2022, in large part, because he scared the hell out

1:42.0

of the people in his district with ads running from his campaign

1:45.3

and from outside groups with basically this message that he was going to be tough on the border

1:50.2

and on immigration.

...

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