Jen Psakrates

Spend enough time in the White House briefing room, in-person or virtually, and you will soon spot the favorite arrows in the rhetorical quiver of the press secretary behind the podium.

Most useful to the briefer are those tools that can help when he or she finds that a straightforward answer to question, a substantive response readily summoned, is either impossible or politically undesirable; after all, when you know the answer to a question and are inclined to provide it, fancy verbal footwork is hardly necessary.

For Sarah Huckabee Sanders — the Trump-era press secretary whose nearly two-year tenure (2017-19) witnessed fewer briefings than any of her 13 predecessors — the preferred method was abstinence: A briefing not held is, by definition, a briefing without error.

When she did conduct briefings, Sanders put the “brief” back into the affair, keeping answers short and moving quickly throughout the room in an era when reporters have tended to ask longer questions and the sessions frequently exceed an hour in length.

For the current press secretary, Jen Psaki — as practiced as the administration could have found, given her previous experience, during the Obama-Biden administration, as the briefer at the State Department — the go-to devices when challenged, or when presented with a question Psaki doesn’t immediately know how to address, have included some of the same tools employed by all smart briefers: punting to another agency; shutting down inquiries with curt statements about having no additional information to provide; or promising an answer at a later time ... that never arrives.

One of Psaki’s most effective devices, however, is the Socratic (or what we might call the Psakratic) Method: the answering of a question with a question in reply.

In the April 13 briefing, M.J. Lee of CNN cited three specific instances when President Joe Biden’s comments on the Russia-Ukraine War prompted Psaki and other aides to “clarify” that Biden was conveying only his own personal views and not U.S. policy:

• The off-handed declaration at the White House on March 16 that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “war criminal”
• The ad-libbed remark about Putin, in Poland 10 days later, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power”
• The comment in Iowa on April 12, tacked onto the end of a sentence about high gas prices, where the president said Russia is committing “genocide” in Ukraine

“Does this not send a signal to the world,” Lee asked, “that there kind of is an asterisk next to anything that the president says?”

At first, Psaki opted to portray her boss as a straight shooter, unable to conceal his gut feelings, without directly addressing the question of whether such statements, while heartfelt, might present parallel lines to official policies: “When the president ran, he promised the American people he would ‘shoot from the shoulder’ … and his comments yesterday [about genocide] and on war crimes are an exact reflection of that … I don’t think anybody is confused about the atrocities of what we’re seeing on the ground, the horrors of what we’re seeing on the ground.”

When Lee persisted, Psakrates showed up:

LEE: Do you think that there is any danger to global leaders—including Vladimir Putin to Olaf Scholz—if they can’t be sure when they hear words coming out of the president’s mouth whether he is stating a personal opinion versus making a statement about U.S. policy?
PSAKI: Do you have an example of somebody who’s confused, a leader?

The effect of the Socratic Method, as generations of law professors and students know, is to place the onus back on the questioner. In the White House briefing room, the device tilts the playing field in the briefer’s favor, as the reporter is now placed in the unfair position of having to account for events or conversations which, as a matter of policy and practice, are concealed from the questioner.

Lee replied that French President Emmanuel Macron had objected to Mr. Biden’s remarks. Psaki said that the president’s “genocide” comment “does not change policy.”

In the April 8 briefing, the tilting of the playing field came when CBS News’ Weijia Jiang asked whether Biden, confronted with a COVID resurgence that had infected Psaki and others close to the Oval Office, was taking any monoclonal antibodies to stave off the virus.

Psaki said Evusheld, an antibody used for immune-compromised individuals, would be the pre-emptive option, but noted that Biden is not thusly compromised. When Jiang followed up, the Psakratic Method returned:

JIANG: Is he taking any other medication that might help?
PSAKI: Like what?
JIANG: Well, I don’t actually know. [Laughter] That’s a great question.

Still another example came in the March 10 briefing and involved Peter Doocy of Fox News, Psaki’s regular sparring partner, in exchanges the press secretary encourages, apparently under the belief that they are helpful with the Biden base.

Doocy inquired about a possible change to U.S. policies given that the administration’s moves to date, a mix of sanctions and security assistance, had not deterred Putin from further aggression against Ukraine.

DOOCY: So why not consider some alternate strategy to communicate to Russia the consequence if they are to do a bio or chemical weapons strike inside Ukraine?
PSAKI: Like what?
DOOCY: I’m asking you.

If it is true, as published reports suggest, that Psaki is eyeing the exits at the White House and negotiating, through a talent agent, to obtain a job as a host on MSNBC, she may soon find herself subjected to the Psakratic Method, when a guest answers one of her questions with another in return.

Chances are the veteran of the Obama-Biden and Biden-Harris administrations will find such responses more appealing than if her guests were to refer her, breezily, to the guest on another talk show, or to tell her, tersely, they have nothing additional for her on the subject.

James Rosen is the chief White House correspondent for Newsmax and has covered the State Department, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court and the Pentagon. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.