Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki must have a short memory because on her Tuesday episode of The Briefing on MS NOW, she attacked President Trump for seizing a Venezuelan oil tanker without Congressional approval despite the tanker being first sanctioned by her former boss, President Biden, slightly after she left the administration in 2022.
Psaki also lamented that the tanker seizures appear to be just beginning, “Tonight, President Trump announced on social media that Venezuela is completely surrounded by what he called the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America. He said that armada was enforcing a, quote, ‘total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.’”
Trying to add context, she declared, “Now, that announcement comes just a week after the Trump administration seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. And all of that has been done without any congressional approval.”
All Trump did was seize a tanker that Biden sanctioned and presumably would’ve done the same if given the opportunity. Psaki’s former colleagues seized other vessels supporting terrorists and even Nicolás Maduro’s plane, but for Democrats—and Psaki still is, for all intents and purposes, a Democratic operative—none of that matters because history began yesterday and this is all about condemning Trump.
Psaki, however, rolled on, “And this comes just one day after the U.S. military struck another three boats in the Eastern Pacific, killing eight people. The strikes were the latest of the now at least 25 strikes the U.S. military has carried out in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since September. Those strikes have killed at least 95 people. And again, the Trump administration is doing all of this without any approval from Congress.”
MSNBC may have rebranded to MS NOW, but Psaki does a good job at highlighting that MSDNC never changes.
Here is a transcript for the December 16 show:
MS NOW The Briefing with Jen Psaki
12/16/2025
9:35 PM ET
JEN PSAKI: Tonight, President Trump announced on social media that Venezuela is completely surrounded by what he called the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America. He said that armada was enforcing a, quote, “total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.”
Now, that announcement comes just a week after the Trump administration seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. And all of that has been done without any congressional approval.
And this comes just one day after the U.S. military struck another three boats in the Eastern Pacific, killing eight people. The strikes were the latest of the now at least 25 strikes the U.S. military has carried out in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since September. Those strikes have killed at least 95 people. And again, the Trump administration is doing all of this without any approval from Congress.
