Axios White House reporter Alex Thompson flagged on Monday former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s new memoir Say More will have an altered passage in future printings following the revelation that it falsely claimed President Biden never looked at his watch during the August 29, 2021, dignified transfer of remains for the 13 Americans murdered in Kabul during the U.S.’s disastrous retreat from Afghanistan.
Thompson highlighted the key passage in which she claimed Biden has been a victim of “misinformation” aimed to make “him appear insensitive” when, in her (alternate) reality, “the president looked at his watch only after the ceremony had ended. Moments later, he and the First Lady headed toward their car.”
Of course, it flew in the face of live footage from the scene and professional photographers. Psaki quoted friendly media with a (fake) fact-check via USA Today, but she couldn’t even get that right as she attributed it to The Washington Post.
Thompson also noted that Psaki’s claim “contradict[s] news photos and firsthand accounts of Gold Star families”
At the time, our Nick Fondacaro torched these partisan tools for “drag[ging] those grieving families through the mud” by downplaying what they had seen with their own eyes. And, over on the broadcast networks, Fondacaro noted they ignored it completely in the news cycle after it happened.
It's true. Joe Biden checked his watch during the dignified transfer of the servicemembers killing in Afghanistan at the airport. You can see him jerk his left hand to pull the watch out from under his sleeve, then look down at it. pic.twitter.com/M3QVzJbTIm
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 29, 2021
Psaki cowardly “initially declined to comment”, but emerged only after Thompson’s story was posted to admit a “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”.
Further, Psaki channeled her former boss to both Axios and our friend Brian Flood at FoxNews.com by making it about — wait for it — Beau Biden:
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
The rest of Thompson’s piece emphasized in broad strokes the reality as we barrel toward the November presidential election that Afghanistan remains one of if not the biggest stain on the President.
