MSNBC host Jen Psaki told Andrea Mitchell she’s looking forward to the Fox News Republican Primary Debate next week because co-moderator Martha MacCallum has said she intends to ask the candidates if President Joe Biden’s victory over ex-President Donald Trump was legitimate.
MacCallum and fellow Fox News anchor Bret Baier have been on a bit of a media tour to promote the debate they’re co-moderating next Wednesday on Fox — which Trump now says he’s skipping to do something else. But the charm offensive did catch Psaki’s eye.
On Friday’s edition of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, Mitchell and Psaki discussed the dance some candidates are doing over the new Georgia indictment, and Psaki said she was glad to hear MacCallum plans to put the non-Trump field on the spot about 2020:
ANDREA MITCHELL: And here’s Mike Pence just today in Atlanta. In the last hour, Mike Pence talked about the Georgia case. He was in Atlanta, I guess in the same forum.
EX-VP MIKE PENCE: The first principles are no one is above the law. But the former president and all of those involved are entitled to the presumption of innocence that every American is entitled to. That being said, I do think it’s important to hear, irrespective of that case or other cases going forward, that we speak the truth to the American people. I, I had no right to overturn the election and the Georgia election was not stolen.
ANDREA MITCHELL: The Georgia election was not stolen, and I had no right to overturn the law. So he’s threading that needle and that’s his he’s now consistently framing it that way leading into the debate.
Jen PSAKI: Which is so interesting? And also, Ron DeSantis also came to the brink of saying, just last week, that the election was not legitimately won by Joe Biden. That’s a paraphrase. What’s also interesting to watch is that Martha MacCallum, who is moderating this debate next week, has essentially suggested that she might raise this question about whether or not these candidates think the 2020 election was won by Joe Biden. That would be very interesting If that happened. We will see, given that has been the majority of Republican candidates position, and Republican leaders have been saying for years now that it wasn’t. So that could be a real shift.
