On the Wednesday episode of her MSNBC show "The Briefing," host Jen Psaki took House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Republicans in Congress to task for their unwillingness to address President Donald Trump's increasingly brazen attitude toward accepting illegal gifts.

Psaki began the segment by playing a clip of Trump speaking to reporters from Air Force One, in which he denied knowledge of a major infusion of foreign money benefiting him directly. In that deal, the government of Abu Dhabi announced a massive $2 billion investment into a cryptocurrency exchange using a "stablecoin" developed by World Liberty Financial — the company his adult children operate.

"This whole deal seems like the kind of thing that would, in most circumstances, pique the interest of Republicans in Congress," Psaki said. "I mean, really, anyone in Congress. After all, Republicans spent years crowing about alleged foreign business deals of the so-called 'Biden crime family' as they deemed it. I mean, a $400 million plane plus a $2 billion crypto deal from the governments of countries in the Middle East does kind of make all of that seem like small ball."

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Psaki then focused specifically on the speaker, scoffing at the Louisiana Republican's assertion that he wasn't up to speed on either the $2 billion crypto investment, the ongoing questions surrounding his promotion of a memecoin named after him or a $400 million Qatari jet he's hoping to have serve as a backup Air Force One.

"Noted crime hunter Mike Johnson surely has an opinion about that, right? He must," Psaki said, before playing a clip of Johnson telling reporters he didn't "know anything about the memecoin thing."

"I would note that coverage of the crypto deals has been pretty extensive. It's all over the place, everybody's covering it. And yet somehow the speaker of the House is blissfully ignorant? Doesn't know a thing about it?" Psaki continued. "All right, so maybe all this crypto stuff is too complicated, if i'm being generous, for a simple country lawyer like Mike Johnson. Maybe that's the thing. What about Trump's palace in the sky, courtesy of Qatar? I mean, that is everywhere. Surely the speaker of the House must have some thoughts on that one, right?"

She then played a clip of a reporter asking Johnson if he thought Congress "should have approval" over whether Trump can accept the controversial Qatari jet, which let to Johnson saying he was "a little busy on reconciliation" and was "not following all the twists and turns of the Qatar jet."

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"I'm going to leave it to the [Trump] administration," Johnson said. "They know much more about the details of that, OK? I'm just, it's not my lane."

"First of all, it's not at all very twisty or very turny," Psaki said. "It's a $400 million plane from Qatar that experts say could cost American taxpayers $1 billion. And again, it's hard to turn on a television and not see coverage of the plane. But hey, it's not his lane."

"So, you know, maybe he could ask whoever is supposed to approve presidential emoluments, right? Maybe he could ask that question of somebody. That would be, hold on, let me just check my notes here, who does that? Oh, right. Yeah. The United States Congress, of which he is the highest ranking member," she continued. "It's literally their responsibility to approve such things."

"But really, this may be nothing more complicated, probably is, then Mike Johnson taking a page right out of Donald Trump and his administration's know-nothing, we-know-nothing-about-it playbook," she added.

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Watch the full segment below, or by clicking this link.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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