Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has a new book out and, unfortunately for her, it is already in need of a correction. Ironically, Psaki chose a story about Joe Biden looking at this watch during a ceremony for US soldiers killed in Afghanistan as an example of media misinformation. But it turns out her book is the actual misinformation and it will need to be corrected.
The backstory here is the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan which resulted in 13 dead soldiers. In August of 2021, Biden attended a “dignified transfer” ceremony at Dover Air Force Base where the bodies of the soldiers were taken off a plane in coffins draped in the American flag. But for some reason, President Biden kept checking his watch during the ceremony, making it look like he had more important places to be. Now, Psaki is claiming that never happened.
Driving the news: In her new book “Say More,” Psaki writes that “the president looked at his watch only after the ceremony had ended. Moments later, he and the First Lady headed toward their car.”
Psaki, now a star anchor at MSNBC who has described herself as a journalist, writes that Biden’s critics were engaged in “misinformation” and used the image to make “him appear insensitive, concerned only about how much time had passed.”
There were indeed claims that Biden had only checked his watch after the ceremony but fact-checks at the time found that wasn’t true.
Associated Press photos taken 10 minutes apart show Biden checking his watch during the ceremony. Another photo from the Agence France-Presse, distributed by Getty Images, also shows Biden glancing at his watch, although it’s unclear what time the image was taken…
Biden did check his watch at least three times, according to photos and video reviewed by USA TODAY. Several family members of fallen service members who attended the ceremony have criticized Biden for checking his watch.
Two of the family members claimed Biden checked his watch more than a dozen times during the ceremony.
Darin Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Biden checked his watch every single time a flag-draped coffin was removed from the hold of the Air Force C-17 Globemaster plane during Sunday’s ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in the president’s home state of Delaware.
“They would release the salute and he looked down at his watch on every last one,” Hoover said. “All 13, he looked down at his watch.”
Mark Schmitz — whose 20-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, died in the attack — corroborated Hoover’s story.
“I actually leaned into my son’s mother’s ear and I said, ‘I swear to God, if he checks his watch one more time …’,” Schmitz recalled, “and that was only probably four times in.
Jen Psaki was Press Secretary at the time and she was asked about it by Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich.
Heinrich: Thanks, Jen. One question on the dignified transfer, and then I want to get to Afghanistan. Some of the Gold Star families have criticized the President — President’s conduct at the dignified transfer. There was a father of one Marine who said that the President appeared to be checking his watch every time a flag-draped transfer case came out of the plane. And a sister of another Marine said that it felt like a fake and scripted apology. Was the President looking at his watch? And does he have a message to those people who felt that they were offended?
MS. PSAKI: Well, I would say his message to all of the family members who were there, those who were not even in attendance is that he is grateful to their sons and daughters, the sacrifice they made to the country; that he knows firsthand what it’s like to lose a child and the fact that no one can tell you anything or say anything — or there’s no words that are going to fill that hole that is left by that.
He’s not going to speak to and I’m not going to speak to the private conversations. Of course, they have the right to convey whatever they would like. But I will tell you, from spending a lot of time with him over the past couple of days, that he was deeply impacted by these family members who he met just two days ago; that he talks about them frequently in meetings and the incredible service and sacrifice of their sons and daughters. I — that is not going to change their suffering, but I wanted to convey that still.
Notice she didn’t answer the question. She also didn’t deny that Biden was checking his watch. Now three years later she’s an MSNBC anchor and she’s rewriting history and accusing others of misinformation. But it seems at some point she realized this wasn’t defenisble.
Psaki initially declined to comment, but after this story was published she said in a statement that the “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.”
I think the real question is how did she not know this already? She was in the White House when this happened and clearly had a prepared answer for this specific question (really a non-answer). It’s hard to believe that at some point the truth of the matter didn’t reach her. It reminds me of the NY Times blaming Sarah Palin for the Tucson shooting years after that claim was debunked. Some people’s heads are just full of left-wing talking points it seems.
Joe Biden is attending Dover Air Force Base today to honor the three American service members killed in Jordan.
In 2021, he “honored” the thirteen soldiers who died in Afghanistan by checking his watch. pic.twitter.com/3h2gt0z1HA
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) February 2, 2024
