MSNBC host and former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki spent part of her Tuesday show discussing online rumors about President Donald Trump’s health, saying, “we may never know” why he “suddenly spent a week hiding” from the public.
“You really can’t make this stuff up sometimes,” Psaki said, pointing to Trump denying false rumors of his death during a White House press event earlier in the day. She claimed his response was rambling and added, “And look, we may never know why Donald Trump suddenly spent a week hiding entirely from the American public, but you don’t actually need baseless online conspiracies to explain why he might not want to show his face in public right now.”
Trump told reporters Tuesday that he was “very active” over Labor Day weekend. Psaki, however, offered her own ideas about why he avoided public events.
“For starters, there’s the polling, and boy, is it brutal,” Psaki said. She pointed to a new Wall Street Journal poll showing only 25% of Americans believe they have a good chance of improving their standard of living — the lowest number in nearly 40 years of asking that question.
She also suggested that Trump’s absence could be tied to “his absolute failure to try and make people forget about his 15-year friendship with child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.”
“Lord knows that could be a reason,” Psaki added. “Maybe the biggest reason Trump has been so shy recently is that a lot of this pushback appears to be working.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the segment aired, Psaki faced criticism from conservative commentators and social media users, who accused her of “hypocrisy” and lacking “self-awareness.”
Psaki had previously dismissed concerns about former President Biden’s age and mental fitness, particularly before the June 2024 CNN debate in Atlanta between Biden and Trump.
RealClearPolitics co-founder Tom Bevan commented on X, “You can’t make this stuff up.” One user replied to a clip of Psaki’s remarks, writing, “It’s called hypocrisy at its finest.” Another said, “Just incredible that Jen Psaki is trying this. Astonishing even.”
Martha Zoller, a conservative political commentator, argued Psaki had “no authority to comment on this” because she worked for Biden.
Psaki defended Biden earlier this year, saying on the “Mixed Signals” podcast that she never saw signs of him being diminished while working in the White House. “I never saw that person — not a single time, and I was in the Oval Office every day, that was on that debate stage,” she said, adding, “I’m not a doctor. Aging happens quite quickly.”
Psaki joined MSNBC in 2022. In 2023, she dismissed concerns about Biden’s age and told viewers that, despite his flaws, he was better than the alternative. “Joe Biden isn’t perfect. No candidate is, by the way,” she said. “But we have to understand what the alternative is here. If elected to a second term, Donald Trump would prosecute anyone he deems an enemy, unleash troops on protesters, and essentially unravel the rule of law as we know it, and this time, he plans to align his administration with people who will actually do it. But sure, Joe Biden is three years older and occasionally trips on things.”
