Jen Psaki loyally served Joe Biden as his first White House Press Secretary.
But now the knives are out.
And Joe Biden will be furious when he sees what Jen Psaki just agreed to do.
Jen Psaki agrees to transcribed interview
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee notched an important win when Psaki agreed to a July 26 transcribed interview as part of the investigation into Joe Biden’s bungling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden lied to the public about the ability of the Afghan army to hold on to the country once American forces withdrew.
As Press Secretary, Psaki was privy to how the administration would shape its media strategy to defend the botched withdrawal.
Psaki initially refused an interview with the committee, claiming the White House counsel needed to approve her appearance.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-TX) wrote a letter to Psaki and her attorney explaining why that was unacceptable.
“I understand you have conditioned your appearance on approval by the White House. As my staff informed your counsel, it is incumbent on a witness appearing before the Committee to make any third-party arrangements. The Committee is nevertheless available to attend meetings and be included in correspondence between you and the White House to represent the Committee’s equities,” McCaul wrote.
“While I hope to proceed with your voluntary appearance, I expect you to have resolved the conditionality of your appearance by June 26, 2024. If not, I must treat your June 12 response as a refusal to appear and you will be compelled to sit for a deposition,” McCaul’s letter continued.
McCaul cited the fact that Psaki sought to make money off her account of what she knew about the withdrawal from Afghanistan by including recollections in her memoir as evidence she should testify to Congress.
“It is troubling that Ms. Psaki seeks to profit off the Afghanistan tragedy, and has felt comfortable writing accounts and making them available to the general public, but refuses to make herself available to Congress,” the letter concluded.
The Afghanistan withdrawal marked the beginning of the end for Biden
Joe Biden’s polling slide began in late summer 2021 after the debacle in Afghanistan.
The Taliban retook control of the country in two weeks.
13 American soldiers died in a terrorist attack at the Kabul Airport after Biden had to deploy U.S. forces to safeguard an evacuation of American citizens that Biden failed to carry out before pulling all troops out of the country.
It wasn’t just the poorly executed withdrawal that turned the public against Biden.
Biden didn’t speak publicly about the fiasco for days as his handlers were afraid of Biden answering unscripted questions.
According to RealClearPolitics, on August 20, 2021, Joe Biden’s net approval rating slipped into negative territory.
It never recovered.
In many ways, the debacle in Afghanistan served as the same fault line with the public that Hurricane Katrina did for President George W. Bush.
After both events, the public simply decided the incumbent was incompetent, and that was that.
