Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki is pushing a brazen lie about President Joe Biden in her new book “Say More.”
Axios’ Alex Thompson noted Psaki “claims in her new book that President Biden never looked at his watch during the ceremony for soldiers killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 — contradicting news photos and firsthand accounts of Gold Star families.”
The book claims Biden “looked at his watch only after the ceremony had ended. Moments later, he and the First Lady headed toward their car,” Thompson reports.
Jen Psaki lied in her book about an easily provable fact. pic.twitter.com/mZmXbEvLVw
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) May 13, 2024
The report points out photographs from the day and fact-checks have shown Biden, in fact, did look at his watch during the ceremony. Additionally, Psaki’s book misquotes an article from the USA Today — which she cited as The Washington Post — to prove her claim, but the actual article stated, “Photos and video show [Biden] also checked his watch during the ceremony.”
Additionally, Thompson noted on “Aug. 29, 2021, Shana Chappell, the mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, wrote on Facebook: “I watched you disrespect us all 5 different times by checking your watch!!! What the f*** was so important that you had to keep looking at your watch????”
In a statement after Axios published its report, Psaki said there is “detail in a few lines of the book about the exact number of times he looked at his watch will be removed in future reprints and the ebook.”
“The story on Afghanistan is really about the importance of delivering feedback even when it is difficult told through my own experience of telling President Biden that his own story of loss was not well received by the families who were grieving their sons and daughters,” she added.
For whatever reason, Biden decided a couple weeks ago he would start yelling about the four-year-old report that Trump called Americans killed in war “suckers” and “losers,” while claiming his uncle was shot down in World War II and then eaten by cannibals.
Clearly, there is a push once again to make Trump look like he has no respect for the military while making Biden out to be the respectful, sober-minded president who respects the sacrifices of the military.
And, yes, it’s hard to push a message of the current president, who constantly falsely claims his son died in Iraq, as the empathetic leader with a strong record when it comes to the military ever since the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. You really have to squint your eyes after a few drinks to believe him in that light.
Sorry, that your Captain Empathy hasn’t actually turned out to be Captain Empathy. Maybe pick a candidate who actually is.
But don’t try to lie to us with what cameras caught so clearly. There is no mistaking the wrist motion he made as he glanced at his watch, he made no effort to hide it.
To tell us we didn’t really see what happened in broad daylight is just insulting to us, the families who were offended by his behavior that day, and the fallen service members he was supposed to be honoring — but didn’t.
