MS NOW's Jen Psaki caught an acute case of the giggles while reacting to Melania Trump's speech about Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday.
Psaki, 47, said she saw the speech as 'bananas' and 'self-important' at the top of her primetime show, The Briefing.
She also cast doubt on several of the first lady's claims - joining MS NOW costar Joe Scarborough in doing so.
First, the former Joe Biden press secretary let out a laugh, though, relishing in what she saw as Melania 'single-handedly reignit[ing] the whole Epstein scandal.'
She then cued a clip of the first lady saying, 'Good afternoon. The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,' immediately after taking the podium.
Another laugh from Psaki followed as the clip cut.
'I mean- well, good afternoon to you, Melania Trump!' she said, before recalling her mindset when she watched the speech live.
'I was like, what is happening here? And I was thinking, am I hallucinating? What the hell is going on? Whose idea was this? I had lots of questions.'
Jen Psaki, 47, said she saw the speech as 'bananas' and 'self-important' between laughs during Thursday's installment of her primetime show, The Briefing
'Good afternoon. The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,' Melania said as soon as she took the podium at the White House Thursday afternoon - an assertion Psaki found funny
'I mean, I guess one possibility is that it's a sign the war really is going that badly,' Psaki said, as figures like Megyn Kelly, Jimmy Kimmel, and Fox & Friends' Ainsley Earhardt also speculated about the address's true meaning.
'Another is that they are trying to get ahead of a story that a reporter is working on. I guess we'll learn if that's the case soon enough. Who knows?' Psaki guessed.
She went on to lay out more of what was offered up in the seemingly impromptu speech.
'The first lady went on to denounce what she described as false smears against her, citing numerous fake images and statements on social media and saying she wanted to clear her good name,' Psaki said.
'From what exactly?' she asked, before acknowledging suspicion surrounding the sudden appearance.
'Because again, the unavoidable question on everyone's mind was why now? Why at all? Why ever?'
Melania, meanwhile, maintained she and her husband only attended the same parties as Epstein 'from time to time' due to 'overlapping' social circles during the speech.
She also said that a 2002 message to Ghislaine Maxwell - Epstein's only convicted accomplice - 'cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence' in the footage.
'I mean, most people hearing her remarks probably had never even heard any of the so-called lies she was responding to,' Psaki said, citing MS NOW reporting that suggested White House staffers were also blindsided by the speech which itself was based on word from a White House official.
Psaki said that she herself found that 'a little hard to believe,' citing remarks from Melania's 'spokesperson' to the 'The New York Times' late Thursday that were later amended.
The Times report noted that the rep later said it was not clear the president was aware of the topic beforehand. He told MS NOW reporter Jacqueline Alemany personally that he was not.
'But I mean, regardless of who knew what and when they knew it inside the White House, nobody on the outside was betting that the first lady would give a surprise speech on Jeffrey Epstein,' Psaki continued.
She noted the venue as well, and how it echoed the visuals of the president's primetime address to the nation about Iran the week before.
'And having worked in multiple White Houses and been a part of preparing for many of these formal speeches, I can tell you where you give a speech is basically a signal of how important you think it is,' Psaki said.
'And let me just tell you, Melania was exuding self-importance this afternoon.'
'[L]et me just tell you, Melania was exuding self-importance this afternoon,' Psaki said at a point, before casting doubt on the first lady's claim that she 'never had a relationship with 'Epstein'
She went on to play another clip of the first lady where she reiterated, ‘To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, [Ghislaine] Maxwell’, before offering one last parting shot.
‘Well, a relationship can be a flexible term, I suppose.’
Kelly, the following day, wondered on her show ‘Why would she do this?’
‘Like, everyone knows, in PR, once the storm has passed, you don’t do anything to bring it back upon you.’
‘And that’s why some people are speculating, was this meant to distract people from Iran?’
‘Did they use Epstein to distract from Iran and Iran to distract from Epstein, and then Epstein once again to distract from Iran.’
Like Psaki, Kelly let out a laugh as well, admitting, ‘I have no idea.’
Kimmel, on his late-night show, theorized, ‘She must really hate him. I don’t know how else to explain it.’
Earhardt, meanwhile, started a Friday Fox & Friends segment by asking the first lady’s top advisor, Marc Beckman, why the address was called in the first place.
‘People are questioning the timing of this,’ she said.
Sarborough wondered why Melania was ‘bringing up something that obviously the president doesn’t want brought up’ on Friday’s Morning Joe.
Both Beckman and the first lady said the reason for the address was to direct attention to the plight of Epstein’s victims.
‘We still must work openly and transparently to uncover the truth,’ she said, calling on Congress to hold a public hearing for victims to testify under oath.
The first lady’s denial, meanwhile, comes a day after the Justice Department announced that former Attorney General Pam Bondi would not appear for a subpoena before the House Oversight Committee on April 14.
The subpoena addressed her handling of the DOJ documents about Epstein, following fierce bipartisan backlash.
Rep. James Comer, the Republican Chair of the Oversight Committee, issued the subpoena after joining Democrats in pledging to investigate the DOJ for its handling of files related to President Trump missing from recent administration releases.
The DOJ told the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday its subpoena for a closed-door deposition with Bondi was moot because it sought Bondi's testimony in an 'official capacity as Attorney General'.
She was removed from office last week. Comer has yet to withdraw the subpoena.