"Press Secretary Jen Psaki holds" by The White House Baiden-Harris is marked with CC0 1.0.ref=openverse.
In 2021, Joe Biden made the reckless decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan. He did this in a haphazard manner that not only got 13 service members killed but also led to the Taliban reclaiming power after being kept at bay for over a decade.
As US elections 2024 polls continue to gauge public sentiment, this controversial decision remains a pivotal point of criticism for the Biden administration. In the midst of these political debates, former press secretary Jen Psaki finds herself walking back a controversial claim from her new book, Say More.
Despite the fallout from this Afghanistan withdrawal, the president hasn’t shown any remorse or even publicly admitted that he should have done things differently. At the time, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden’s actions in the Middle East.
Three years later, Psaki is still backing her former boss, this time in her new book, Say More, which just came out earlier this month. The book recounts her experience working in the Biden White House and the lessons she’s learned throughout her career.
Unfortunately for the former press secretary, she was forced to walk back a controversial statement she made about Biden. This claim was posited in defense of the president; though it’s also been widely fact-checked and called out as false.
Jen Psaki Can’t Lie For Biden Anymore
Psaki made many assertions in Say More, most of which come from politically charged, left-wing points of view. Though of all the book’s talking points, here’s the most outrageous one of all: the president wasn’t really looking at his watch while the bodies of fallen US soldiers were being transferred.
Americans know this isn’t true. Biden was caught on video (and in photographs) clearly checking his watch as everyone around him watched the transfers of caskets, with their hands over their hearts.
The former press secretary asserted that in the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal, Biden only looked at his watch once the transfer ended. She also directly asserted that individuals claiming otherwise were spreading “misinformation.”
This is a demonstrably false claim, one that Jen Psaki eventually confirmed would be pulled from forthcoming book reprints, along with the electronic version of Say More. At this time, the White House hasn’t weighed in on their former aide being forced to retract this salacious claim about Biden’s behavior.
In 2021, the president caught a lot of flack for what he did over the bodies of dead soldiers. Americans – along with the relatives of the fallen troops – were understandably upset. Biden was widely panned as insensitive, uncaring, and dismissive of tragedy that he played a significant role in.
As it turns out, Gold Star families also aren’t happy with the claims made in Jen Psaki’s Say More. During talks with the New York Post, the relatives of soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan called for a removal of the untrue excerpt.
Darin Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, said it was “disgusting” for the former press secretary to “memorialize” outright lies about Biden’s behavior. Coral Briseno, who lost her son, Marine Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, had similar thoughts about what Psaki initially stated.
Briseno stressed that none of the Gold Star families were lying about what they saw from the president as their children’s bodies laid in caskets. She then added the behavior was “disrespectful” and would have been condemned no matter which party the president was part of.
In other words, criticism about Biden’s dismissive conduct wasn’t politically motivated, nor was any criticism the “misinformation” that Psaki originally presented it as.
To the relatives of Americans who’ll never see their children again, it was an insult for Biden to check his watch when he did. The message sent by the president when he did this was as clear as day. He seemed to have “better things to do” than stand by and oversee the transfers of deceased US soldiers.
This, in and of itself, is offensive; though the role the president played in the Afghanistan withdrawal makes his behavior in the aftermath even more egregious. Three years later, Gold Star families don’t deserve to be gaslit about what they saw from Biden with their own eyes.
While the president may not still be thinking about the soldiers who died in Afghanistan, their loved ones undoubtedly are. This is something that Gold Star families are going to remember for the rest of their lives.
Jen Psaki Isn’t Alone in This Amid US Elections 2024 Polls
The former White House press secretary is far from the only Biden ally who’s attempted to smooth over his less-than-savory decisions.
For those presently working in the White House, it’s their job to make Biden look as great as possible. Though that’s quite a tall order, given what Americans have observed time and time again. Even his best strategists can only put so much spin on what’s happening.
Throughout this president’s time in office, he’s been constantly defended by Democrats who want to protect his public image. Unfortunately for them, there’s a long track record of Biden making bad decisions; this goes way beyond his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal or his actions involving US troops in general.
The current White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has come under fire for making inaccurate statements in defense of Biden. In late 2022, Jean-Pierre was widely criticized for falsely declaring that the current president created “ten thousand million jobs.” This is one of many lies the press secretary has told in defense of her boss.
Naturally, Biden’s talked a good game, claiming he’s responsible for the US economy seeing a massive boom in employment opportunities. Like many things to come from this president, what he’s saying doesn’t exactly align with the facts.
In actuality, many of the jobs he’s boasted about are simply cases of Americans returning to work after COVID shutdowns were lifted. It’s not surprising that Biden would take credit for this to make himself look good; though it is a clear misrepresentation of the facts that deserves to be accurately presented.
Whether the spin is coming from Jen Psaki, Jean-Pierre, or another of Biden’s supporters, it’s clear that Americans can’t take their word at face value. With the November election coming up, the public can expect even more lies and misleading statements from folks who are eager to keep Biden in power.
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