On her show Wednesday morning, MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson sat down for an exclusive friendly zoom call with the Biden White House communications team, helping them push favorite left-wing agenda items like eliminating the filibusters and expanding entitlement programs shoved into the $1.9 trillion COVID relief boondoggle.
Chatting with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, Jackson touted how “the President is obviously on the road this week, down the road selling his American Rescue Plan to Americans.” She then whined to Bedingfield about Democrats in Congress not having enough votes to force through radical policies and urged a change in Senate rules:
There are other things that you want to accomplish with Congress. That could be hard given the filibuster. Kate, be clear, how far is the President willing to go? Specifically, would he be comfortable rolling back that 60-vote threshold?
After Bedingfield argued that Biden wouldn’t allow “progress” to be “held hostage,” Jackson hopefully declared: “So it sounds like what I’m hearing you say is, the door is not shut for the potential for the President to throw his weight and throw his support behind eliminating that 60-vote threshold, is that fair?”
Turning to Psaki, Jackson wished for a massive entitlement program included in the COVID relief bill be expanded and made permanent:
One of the areas that I’ve been reporting on a lot is the child tax credit. And advocates, the projections say that, Jen, it’s gonna lift something like nearly half of the kids in poverty right now out of poverty. How much muscle is President Biden willing to put behind making sure that this tax credit becomes permanent next year, in a mid-term year, when he may have other issues and other priorities on his plate?
Psaki promised “a lot of muscle” would be applied. Jackson eagerly followed up: “How do you do that? What is the vehicle?”
Before Bedingfield had to leave the video call, Jackson made sure to toss one more softball: “Kate, when you go in and talk to the President, how much do you bring your personal experience into those meetings with him?”
Jackson at least began the interview by gently pressing the group on planned tax hikes by the administration: “What can you do to reassure middle class Americans that this is not going to waterfall down on them, that they’re not going to end up paying the price?...[Biden] can only do so much if corporations end up raising prices on things if they end up having a tax hike as well, right?” That was as tough as the discussion ever got.
If she ever wants a change from MSNBC, Jackson just had a good audition for joining the Biden White House spin machine.
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Here is a transcript of Jackson’s March 18 questions to the Biden communications team:
10:23 AM ET
HALLIE JACKSON: Back now with our MSNBC exclusive, with President Biden hitting the road this week to make his traveling sales pitch on what’s inside the new COVID relief law for Americans, will be talking about things, for example, like the child tax credit. Although, that is only temporary. So what is the administration doing to make any help more permanent, especially for women who have been hit especially hard economically by this pandemic?
I caught up with three of the President’s advisers on this. In a sign of these pandemic times, we did it over a zoom call. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield, and White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, all top staffers who happen to be women, who happen to be mothers. Who say their personal experiences inform some of their professional conversations behind the scenes about how to help women during this crisis and who gave some new insight into what changes could be on the horizon, including that tax increase President Biden’s looking at for people earning more than $400,000 and for big corporations. That’s where we pick up our conversation.
What can you do to reassure middle class Americans that this is not going to waterfall down on them, that they’re not going to end up paying the price?
(...)
JACKSON: Of course, he can only do so much if corporations end up raising prices on things if they end up having a tax hike as well, right?
(...)
JACKSON: Kate, the President is obviously on the road this week, down the road selling his American Rescue Plan to Americans. There are other things that you want to accomplish with Congress. That could be hard given the filibuster. Kate, be clear, how far is the President willing to go? Specifically, would he be comfortable rolling back that 60-vote threshold?
(...)
JACKSON: So it sounds like what I’m hearing you say is, the door is not shut for the potential for the President to throw his weight and throw his support behind eliminating that 60-vote threshold, is that fair?
(...)
JACKSON: One of the areas that I’ve been reporting on a lot is the child tax credit. And advocates, the projections say that, Jen, it’s gonna lift something like nearly half of the kids in poverty right now out of poverty. How much muscle is President Biden willing to put behind making sure that this tax credit becomes permanent next year, in a mid-term year, when he may have other issues and other priorities on his plate?
(...)
JACKSON: How do you do that? What is the vehicle?
(...)
JACKSON: Karine, Jen makes the point, there is more work to be done, talking about, for example, the women that are now out of the work force. I think one of the most recent projections is something like 2.3 million women, according to the National Women’s Law Center, have actually left the work force since the start of this pandemic.
(...)
JACKSON: Kate, when you go in and talk to the President, how much do you bring your personal experience into those meetings with him?
(...)
JACKSON: Kate, thank you. And Jen and Karine, I’m gonna hold you for another two minutes because I have this same question to both of you.
(...)
JACKSON: Your predecessors also had children and were working women in the White House who had kids. And when you look at the Trump administration and when you look at where we are now in the fight against COVID, do you anticipate the President giving his predecessor some more credit on that front, if you will, for getting this country to where we are at this point?
(...)
JACKSON: So you and him were happy to hear that from former President Trump?
(...)
JACKSON: Some news there. And our thanks, to Jen Psaki, Kate Bedingfield, and Karine Jean-Pierre for that conversation. We’re gonna have more online.
