Jen Psaki Finally Apologizes for Lying to Gold Star Families

Former White House Press Secretary and now MSNBC host Jen Psaki finally apologized Friday for saying in her book that Joe Biden didn’t look at his watch during a Dover Air Force Base ceremony in August 2021 honoring the 13 soldiers killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal.

During a transcribed interview, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) asked Psaki about her comments that she wrote in her book, Say More, that stated President Joe Biden never looked at his watch during a ceremony in late August 2021 honoring soldiers killed in Afghanistan returning home.
“The chairman asked Ms. Psaki about her comments regarding President Biden looking at his watch while at Dover [Air Force Base] and asked her if she had anything she wanted to say to the families on the record,” Leslie Shedd, Foreign Affairs Committee majority spokeswoman, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “After pressing her multiple times if she had something she wanted to say to them, Ms. Psaki asked the chairman to pass along her apology to the families and to express her regret for the pain she caused them. He has done that.”

Good for McCaul for pressing the issue, but Psaki’s apparent apology is weak sauce indeed. She asked him “to pass along” her regrets? She has a national cable news TV show from which she could speak to them directly any time she chooses.

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It’s also still mystifying that she would have made such an incorrect claim in the first place. Was she not aware of the existence of cameras and witnesses?

The fact-checkers want to tell you that Joe Biden never looked at his watch at the dignified transfer at Dover.

Can they explain what this picture of Joe Biden looking at his watch is all about, then?

Who fact checks the fact checkers? pic.twitter.com/3XPEg5XdYQ
— Claudia Tenney (@claudiatenney) September 3, 2021

< p lang="en" dir="ltr">Two Gold Star fathers tell Hannity that Biden checked his watch after each casket was transferred at Dover AF Base. pic.twitter.com/zzo6HpRUd3

— Cicero’s Horse (@CicerosHorse) August 31, 2021

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) reacted to the news:

Just left the House Foreign Affairs interview with Jen Psaki.

She agreed to apologize to the 13 Afghanistan Gold Star families whom she falsely contradicted in her book when she said Biden didn’t look at his watch.

This isn’t a partisan or gotcha moment. This is the right…
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) July 26, 2024

This isn’t a partisan or gotcha moment. This is the right thing to do as fellow Americans and I pray she follows through.

I'm unclear what Waltz means by "I pray she follows through" because in reading McCaul's statement, her asking him to pass along her regrets seems like that's as far as she is willing to go. I don't know if she'd have the decency to apologize to the families directly.

Biden’s dereliction of duty during the Afghanistan withdrawal was an early stain on his presidency and was only made worse by the lack of respect and empathy he showed America’s fallen and the Gold Star families. Psaki’s false telling of that day just added more salt to the wounds.

Our American heroes deserved better.