MS NOW’s Jen Psaki Mocks Trump Allies in Pentagon Press Over ‘Scoops’ That Are ‘Just Stenography’

MS NOW host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki roasted Trump allies in the Pentagon press room who scored toothless “scoops” as they questioned embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Most mainstream Pentagon reporters have been deep-sixed from the building for refusing to sign a new set of restrictions put forth by Hegseth. But Trump allies like One America News Network (OANN) host Matt Gaetz and Laura Loomer joined a gaggle of other pro-Trump personalities to fill out a new DOD press corps.

Hegseth met and took questions from the new restricted press cadre on Wednesday.

On Wednesday’s edition of MS NOW’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, the host blasted those reporters for engaging in “stenography” and failing to ask tough questions about the scandals around the boat strikes and the new IG report:

PSAKI: There’s quite a lot of any journalist, any journalist at all might want to ask Secretary Hegseth about right now. He is literally at the center of many of the biggest scandals that have lots of questions surrounding them in Washington right now.

Which is why it is so notable that today when the new Pentagon press corps got to meet Secretary Hegseth himself and ask him anything they wanted at all. They seem to have not actually made any real news at all. Well, I should say. I mean, they think they made news, but what they actually did was act — I mean, pretty much as Pentagon’s stenographers.

As new press corps member Laura Loomer of all people put it today, quote, “The attacks on headsets by the fake news media are unfounded. He is taking every question.” Okay.

Now, after that, Loomer posted her big scoop for today, which was a statement from the Pentagon spokesperson about the Signalgate inspector general’s report coming out tomorrow. And the statement claims the report is a, quote, total exoneration of Secretary Hegseth, adding that the matter is resolved and the case is closed.

That is the information Laura Loomer used her direct access to the secretary of defense to get today. Now, meanwhile, despite Hegseth effectively kicking all of the real actual journalists out of the Pentagon back in October by demanding they sign a pledge to only publish Pentagon approved information, real news outlet after real news outlet after real news outlet today managed to get people familiar with the inspector general’s report to tell them what it really said.

And we here at MS NOW got that scoop. The New York Times got it. The Washington Post got it.

CNN got it. Fox News got it. The Associated Press got it. NBC News got it.

The Guardian got it. ABC News got it. CBS News got it.

I could go on and on and on, but you get the point. Real journalists who are from outlets that refuse to sign the pledge the Pentagon demanded managed to make real news despite the fact that they are no longer allowed in the Pentagon.

Well, the so-called new Pentagon press corps inside the pentagon itself got diddly squat. But again, I mean, that makes sense when you look at who this new Pentagon press corps actually is. It’s not just Laura Loomer, who of course is one of the most prolific conspiracy theorists there is.

There’s also far-right political activist James O’Keefe.

And you might remember him as the leader of the group that published the stolen diary of President Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden, just days before the 2020 election. That guy is now in the Pentagon press corps.

There’s also far right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, who you might also remember as one of the main peddlers of the pizzagate conspiracy theory, the conspiracy theory that led to a real life shooting back in 2016.

There is also, somehow, and this may be the craziest of a crazy group, Matt Gaetz. Yes, the former MAGA congressman from Florida and former Trump nominee for attorney general who resigned from Congress amid a house ethics investigation that found he had likely violated a range of state and federal laws, including in his dealings with a 17-year-old girl.

Again, I could go on and on and on about this and who’s in the press corps, but you get the point.

The old pentagon press corps of journalists is out of the building, and this new pro-Trump, pro-Hegseth press corps is in. And I’m not just saying that. I mean, to get into this new press corps, all of these so-called journalists had to sign an agreement saying they wouldn’t gather any information that the Pentagon hadn’t already approved for release.

They signed up to be members of a newly created — I mean, basically state-run Pentagon media. Let me just show you another example of how this new press corps is completely warping the news.

Just take three of the new press corps members. Laura Loomer, we already talked about her, “Red State reporter RC Maxwell, and 23-year-old right wing TikTok influencer Lance Johnston.

Now, the reason I picked those three is that on Monday, all three of those supposed journalists reported that they had scored Washington Post Pentagon reporter Dan Lamothe’s old desk. All three of them gloated that “The Washington Post” was out and they were in the Post‘s old cubicle, no less.

Of course, all three of these people could not possibly have all gotten The Washington Post old cubicle at the Pentagon. But I mean, I guess let’s put their fact finding skills aside for a second and just look at how they reported on The Washington Post actual scoop from last week, that in the very first of the U.S. air strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific, that’s the story that detailed how Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. One of whom said the order was to kill everybody.

Now that on its own is very likely illegal, according to a lot of experts. But when the — when commanders saw two survivors clinging to the smoldering wreck after the first strike, a second strike was carried out to comply with Hegseth’s instructions. And to be clear, that second strike, shooting the defenseless and shipwrecked wouldn’t just be a war crime. It’s the literal textbook definition of a war crime.

But check out how Hegseth’s new press corps spun it. Laura Loomer reported there is actually a deep state coup happening at the Pentagon, and that all the negative press about Hegseth is actually just part of that nefarious plot. The headline for RC Maxwell’s piece yesterday was wait for it, WaPo botched Hegseth hit job proves the Pentagon desperately needs new media. It’s quite a takeaway.

And the 23-year-old TikTok influencer Lance Johnston had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANCE JOHNSTON, TIKTOK INFLUENCER: It is standard procedure to make for sure that the enemy is neutralized. It is not murder when Pete Hegseth and the Department of War double tap a narcotic ship that is shipping drugs that kill Americans to America. It is not that at all. I’m here at the Pentagon, reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PSAKI: Thank you, Lance, for bringing your extensive expertise on military rules of engagement to the Pentagon.

Watch above via MS NOW’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki.