Psaki: 'Disinformation space' on social media a 'core' issue behind Harris defeat

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki is blaming Vice President Harris's loss to President-elect Trump in part on disinformation.

“One of the things that’s changed even since I got involved in politics is just the rise of the percentage of people who get their information off of platforms that have no fact checking mechanism and no accountability for having disinformation spread,” Psaki, who worked in the Obama administration and served as President Biden's press secretary, told Katie Couric on an episode of her Next Question podcast.

She argued that local and national television outlets are held to a much higher standard for accountability than podcasts and social media platforms.

“Local TV is held to a higher standard of accountability than social media platforms in terms of accurate information on their platforms. That is crazy,” she added. 

“Laws have to change. I don’t even know the entire answer to it but that seems to me to be a core issue.”

She also said Democrats need to do a better job of getting their message to voters by going through non-traditional media.

Psaki specifically referenced Trump’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast as a relatable outlet that may have served as a closing factor for voters. 

“I don’t think Joe Rogan deserves 100 percent credit for Donald Trump being elected, but it was a misunderstanding of kind of also how people are getting their information and an undervaluing of some of those platforms that Trump was doing,” the MSNBC host stated.

Trump’s episode was free of charge and got more than  50 million views on YouTube.

Rogan said he invited Harris to join the podcast but requested that she come to his studio in Austin, Texas. She allegedly declined the offer due to “backlash” from some of the “progressive staff” according to Democratic strategist Jennifer Palmieri as reported by Mediate.