Everything old is new again.

We’ve been hearing from Joe Biden about his proposed new staff and cabinet choices, and the choices sound like Obama 2.0 or “Return of the Swamp Monsters.”

My colleague Brad Slager wrote a story earlier about Jen Psaki, who was a former Obama State Department official and Obama White House communications director. She of course held another common position for a former Obama official: CNN commentator. Now, she’s Joe Biden’s’ proposed press secretary and that’s prompted an old photo of her to emerge from 2014 – Psaki in a Russian Communist hammer and sickle hat.

Yes, it's the hammer and sickle pic.twitter.com/sniIGMNX61

— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) December 1, 2020

Now, after the four years of false accusations and phony collusion stories that the Democrats and the media put out, it’s a good reminder of how much they toadied and sucked up to Russia. And it’s incredible that someone would be so clueless and frankly, stupid, to be used like this by the Russians to wear a Communist symbol for the photo-op. Says a whole lot about who Biden is willing to put in that seat.

So what was the media’s response to this story about the picture resurfacing? Oh, now, listen, America, that picture is “missing context,” USA Today claimed. ’Though it’s difficult to decipher, the logo on the hat — a traditional furry “ushanka” hat — resembles the hammer and sickle.’’

Fact check:

The claim: A photo shows Jen Psaki, Joe Biden's pick for press secretary, wearing a hammer and sickle hat while posing with officials from Russia.

Our ruling: Missing context https://t.co/r36VAwWZWV

— USA TODAY Politics (@usatodayDC) December 1, 2020

No, the only “context” missing was that USA Today wants to defend Democrats and that as the spokesperson for the State Department of the United States of America at the time, she never should have done it. Nobody made any other claims other than that she was wearing the hat with the Russians. There is no context missing and it wasn’t “difficult to decipher” that it was the hammer and sickle symbol.

Here are the Russians making use of her cluelessness.

Russia responded w/ #Ushanka Hat gifted to @statedeptspox to stay warm&fancy during #US #winterstorm up to @Sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/yPmWTxydyE

— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) January 13, 2014

But what I wanted to write about was Psaki’s response to the resurfacing of the picture.

For anyone who hasn't been the target of Russian propaganda (cc: @McFaul @HillaryClinton) the purpose is to discredit powerful messengers and to spread misinformation to confuse the public. Anyone who repeats it is (unwitting or not) simply a puppet of the propaganda machine.

— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) December 1, 2020

“For anyone who hasn’t been the target of Russian propaganda (cc: @McFaul, @HillaryClinton) the purpose is to discredit powerful messengers and to spread misinformation to confuse the public. Anyone who repeats it is (unwitting or not) simply a puppet of the propaganda machine.”

So wait, is she kidding? The Russians didn’t club her over the head and shove the hat on her head, she was foolish enough to take it and wear it, knowing it was being photographed. She wore the symbol that oppressed the world for decades, under which millions of people were killed. So is her point that she was taken in by a scheme? Yes, took you this long to figure it out? But who would be dumb enough to fall for this? A new Biden proposed swamp creature, apparently. Can we say “puppet of the propaganda machine?” We might also add it was Hillary Clinton and the DNC who paid a foreign national for Russian disinformation to undermine President Donald Trump in the form of the dossier. Talk about being an agents of the propaganda machine (unwitting or not).

Let’s walk back a little in time, remember what passed for “diplomacy” under Psaki and Obama/Biden? It was the “promise of hashtag.”

The visuals pic.twitter.com/WtJlgrBUpR

— Martin Weiss (@no_amount) November 29, 2020

Reminder of what was happening at the time. After tricking Psaki into wearing the hat in January and realizing what ridiculous people they had in the Obama/Biden administration, the Russians started invading Ukraine in the next month and seized Crimea. The response? The hashtag. This despite our treaties and promises aid Ukraine. The Obama Administration failed to send the Ukrainians any lethal aid to defend themselves despite them desperately needing it, leaving them with nothing and unable to deal with Russia. It wasn’t until President Donald Trump came in that they actually got lethal aid to defend themselves. So who served Russia’s aid here? Hint: it wasn’t Trump.

But this is the idiocy poised to get back into power if Biden ultimately gets in.

Just to be clear, Jen is saying anyone who points out she wore a pink hammer & sickle hat is a puppet of Russian propaganda. A ridiculous attack on the press. Some folks might be ready for a four year nap, but I sleep about 5 hours a night now & don't plan on changing my routine.

— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) December 2, 2020

My favorite line on this is if you spread that photo of me in the hammer and sickle hat, you're a Russian stooge. Not the person who wore it mind you…

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) December 2, 2020

HT: PJ Media