Jen Psaki had Congresswoman Lamonica McIver playing tee ball Tuesday with questions about federal charges she’s facing from the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey after an incident outside an ICE detainment facility on May 9, in Newark. Psaki and MSNBC tried to cover up the main controversies of the ordeal by electing to only show a mild-mannered, 10-second clip of the congresswoman in a crowd of colleagues and federal agents. The broadcast failed to show crucial body cam footage of Congresswoman McIver pushing and shoving multiple ICE and DHS agents as they attempted to control the crowd.
Jen Psaki chose to ask questions like:
When you look back at video, I’m sure you were just digesting it all in the moment when you were doing all those interviews that day. You’ve probably talked to your colleagues. As you’ve pieced together what happened. I mean, did you even know who you were surrounded by at the time?
In an attempt to downplay McIver’s actions to a sense she didn't know who she was surrounded by. McIver took the layup question and incorrectly stated that their side was only “trying to ask questions” and “get explanations” from federal agents. This played into Psaki’s narrative that the federal agents were purely aggressors, even though body camera footage and numerous other clips from the event showed McIver shoving, pushing, and shouting obscenities at federal agents who were trying to control the situation.
Psaki went on to say; “One of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is there’s so much misinformation out there.” She then showed a clip of Border Czar Tom Homan calling the whole ordeal unprofessional, leading to a Psaki follow-up: "He keeps using the word unprofessional. So I want to know what you think of that, but I also want to just ask you, there’s a lot of inaccuracies in there. I want to give you a chance to tell everybody what all the inaccuracies are."
This type of biased question allowed McIver to play hero:
We didn’t bust our way through. We didn’t do any of that, we were invited there, waiting there for them to come give us a tour. And afterwards, we’d see them come and they’re like rushing to focus on the mayor of Newark, which we’re like, what is going on here? We’re just here for our tour. Why are you going out here to deal with this situation? So at the end of the day, I mean, everything that he’s saying, he doesn’t have the facts. I mean, it’s just so much disconnect, I think, between all of their departments and leadership. They’re not on the same page and unprofessional?
No, it’s unprofessional for us to have to go through that. I think when three members of Congress show up at your gate, you should have some respect and have some professionalism with them, but this is this administration. There is no basic governing respect or, you know, character with this administration. Things are just rogue, they’re doing whatever they want to do.
McIver also took the chance to call the administration and federal agents on the scene “unprofessional.” Does this mean shoving officers and shouting “I touch whoever I want, motherf—er!” and saying “You will pay” is seen as professional to Democrats in Congress?
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read.
MSNBC’s The Briefing With Jen Psaki
May, 20th, 2025
9:15:59 PM EST
JEN PSAKI: Joining me now to discuss the federal criminal charges against her, filed by Trump's hand-picked U.S. Attorney for the state of New Jersey, who I just talked about, is Congresswoman Lamonica McIver. Congresswoman, it’s great to see you. I know you have had a hell of a couple of weeks. Thank you for being here.
(....)
9:16:20 PM EST
PSAKI: Of course. I was just watching as I was preparing to talk to you today, back to some of the interviews on the day that all of this happened. And, at the time, you described it, and so did your colleagues who are with you as being assaulted by multiple ICE agents. Is that part of the argument that you want to make now, and that you plan to make in court as you proceed here?
CONGRESSWOMAN LAMONICA MCIVER (D-NJ): So I definitely plan on making that argument in court. I can’t wait to have my day in court, you know, where we can have due process, which this administration has stripped many of being able to have due process .
(...)
9:16:53 PM EST
PSAKI: When you look back at video, I’m sure you were just digesting it all in the moment when you were doing all those interviews that day. You’ve probably talked to your colleagues. As you’ve pieced together what happened, I mean, did you even know who you were surrounded by at the time?
(...)
9:17:22 PM EST
MCIVER: We were trying, to ask questions, trying to get explanation from the officials that were there, and it was just so chaotic. And ICE and Homeland Security definitely escalated the situation, caused the chaos in the confrontation, and it just was so unnecessary.
(...)
9:17:50 PM EST
PSAKI: It’s also — I would just state anybody can show up. You have this right as a member of congress to an ICE facility to conduct oversight —
MCIVER: Without an appointment
PSAKI: — without an appointment. Now after the scrum outside that we just saw that you have been charged with assault over. You did a tour of the ICE facility?
MCIVER: Yes, yep.
PSAKI: Were any of the same people that you recognized from the scrum a part of that tour?
MCIVER: The same people were there.
PSAKI: It was the same people!
(...)
9:19:06 PM EST
PSAKI: It’s with the same people! I’m just going to restate, because I think that’s a bit mind-blowing given where we are. I mentioned this in the opening of the show that the Justice Department has a Public Integrity Section that always has to typically approve if there are charges that are going to be filed against a member of Congress or an elected official, and sometimes those are warranted. They did not do that in this case, according to NBC reporting, which I don’t know if you just learned that today, but what is your reaction to that?
MCIVER: I mean, it’s not shocking. We’ve been seeing from this administration constant, you know, breaking of the rules, constant breaking of the process, constant disregard to the Constitution. We’ve seen it all, you know.
(...)
9:20:10 PM EST
PSAKI: You were charged by Alina Habba. I just gave a little bit of an overview, though, there she has quite a history. Do you think you would have been charged if it had been any other U.S. Attorney in this — in this — role?
MCIVER: I mean, I don’t think so. I mean, it’s — I don’t want to speculate. I mean, I think anyone that Trump, you know, promotes or appoints, I mean, I think they’ve been problematic from every department you can think of.
(...)
9:21:35 PM EST
PSAKI: No question about it. Lots happening in every state. You said this morning that — um, well, Habba said you had declined every opportunity to come to a resolution. You said they wanted you to admit to something you didn’t do. What did they want you to admit to?
MCIVER: I mean there was a lot. We’ve had a week of back and forth with them, and I will say that I did not waver. You know, I showed up there to do my job, and she wanted me to admit to doing these things, all of these lists of things that she said that I did.
PSAKI: Like what?
MCIVER: I mean from things of impeding, you know, uhh I — um of — there was some other things in there that she put in there, but I can’t remember exactly what it was.
(...)
9:22:35 PM EST
MCIVER: And why should we apologize about doing our job when ICE and Homeland Security created that environment and that atmosphere that we saw out there that day?
PSAKI: I think part of — one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is there’s so much misinformation out there. I want to play something that Tom Homan said earlier today on our air, which has a lot of disinformation on it. But I want to talk with you about it.
(...)
9:23:12 PM EST
PSAKI: He keeps using the word unprofessional. So, I want to know what you think of that, but I also want to just ask you, there’s a lot of inaccuracies in there. I want to give you a chance to tell everybody what all the inaccuracies are.
(...)
9:24:16 PM EST
MCIVER: We didn’t bust our way through. We didn’t do any of that, we were invited there, waiting there for them to come give us a tour. And afterwards, we'd see them come and they’re like rushing to focus on the mayor of Newark, which we’re like, what is going on here? We’re just here for our tour. Why are you going out here to deal with this situation? So at the end of the day, I mean, everything that he’s saying, he doesn’t have the facts. I mean, it’s just so much disconnect, I think, between all of their departments and leadership.They’re not on the same page and unprofessional? No, it’s unprofessional for us to have to go through that. I think when three members of Congress show up at your gate, you should have some respect and have some professionalism with them, but this is this administration. There is no basic governing respect or, you know, character with this administration. Things are just rogue, they’re doing whatever they want to do.
