MS NOW’s Jen Psaki Trashes Fox Over Trump Honcho Hearings: ‘Opposite of NFL Red Zone’

MS NOW host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki trashed Fox News for cutting away from the confirmation hearing for Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to be President Donald Trump’s DHS secretary just as his brawl with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) heated up.

Mullin and Paul got into it in a series of spectacular exchanges at Wednesday’s hearing as Paul confronted Mullin over remarks he made justifying the violent attack Paul suffered at the hands of his neighbor.

Fox News carried several minutes of Paul’s remarks to Mullin and part of their back-and-forth before dipping out to another hearing.

On Wednesday’s edition of MS NOW’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Psaki slammed Fox News for cutting away from the live hearing just as the altercation heated up, comparing the network to a reverse-NFL Red Zone:

PSAKI: Okay. There was quite a competition from the clown car on Capitol Hill today between the nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security. This guy, you can see him right there, Markwayne Mullin. We’re going to talk about him a lot tonight, and the current director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, on who could be more evasive, more uninformed and really more sycophantic, which may be what it’s all about.

And then tonight, we got an unexpected late entrance into that competition from the attorney general, because Pam Bondi just held a closed door briefing on the Epstein files that went so badly that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee walked out of it and they walked out. You can see them on the left there, Congressman Garcia right there. They walked out with steam coming out of their ears. Pretty pissed off.

Congressman Maxwell Frost, he was there. He was in that meeting today. He’s hustling over to the studio, and he’s going to tell us exactly what went down and what happens from here, most importantly.

But I do want to start tonight with those two hearings on Capitol Hill today, that really it happens at pretty much the exact same time. You could get popcorn out, coffee, snacks, all the things. Tulsi Gabbard testified as part of a senate intelligence hearing on worldwide threats. Just one day, of course, after her top deputy resigned in protest over Trump’s war with Iran. So, there was that.

Now around the corner, another part of the Capitol, Markwayne Mullin was testifying in his Senate confirmation hearing, and that Mullin hearing kicked off with an absolutely bonkers exchange between the DHS nominee and the committee’s Republican chairman, Rand Paul. I sort of Republican on Republican, nerdy but aggressive food fight.

And just to give you a sense of what an unmitigated disaster this was, I want you to watch this moment from Fox News, when the conservative network gave a play by play, they were basically giving a play by play like it was a boxing match, and then abruptly, they cut away as soon as the fighting started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): I’m going to secure Kentucky and take care of Kentucky.

FOX ANCHOR: All right. So these gentlemen have a history, Dana?

FOX ANCHOR: Yeah.

FOX ANCHOR: Quite clear.

FOX ANCHOR:: I have to say, I didn’t realize that Rand Paul and Markwayne Mullin had this kind of a personal animosity. It seems like Rand Paul is very angry with him.

FOX ANCHOR: So, we’ll see where that goes. But in the meantime, we’ve got another hearing that’s about to kick off.

FOX ANCHOR: Because any moment, the nation’s top intelligence and law enforcement officials testifying at a Senate hearing on worldwide threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PSAKI: Boy, this looks like it’s getting heated, everyone, something may be about to happen. Republicans are fighting, conservatives, cover your eyes and quick. Let’s — let’s go to the other hearing where perhaps, possibly likely nothing is happening.

Do you ever watch NFL redzone? It’s like the channel that flips between football games happening at the same time. To show you the most exciting parts of each game, to kind of keep you hooked on the action and keep you watching, because they’re going to show you the most important plays and the key parts of the game.

Well, Fox News was kind of like the opposite of NFL redzone today, using the fact that there were two hearings to cut away from the spicier one whenever something interesting actually happened, which was still a tall order for the folks at Fox, because like I said, a lot happened in both of these hearings.

So that details hearing began with this big fight between the chairman of the committee and the nominee, one that has been, by the way, simmering for a long while now.

Rand Paul was a guest on Fox News later in the day, and the network dipped into the hearings live throughout the day.

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

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