Gold Star Families to Jen Psaki: You'll Be Hearing From Our Attorneys

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is out hawking her new memoir, "Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World," and continues the work she started as White House comms lead: shilling for Biden and painting innocent victims in a bad light. Matthew Foldi at our sister site Townhall wrote:

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Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki gave a cruel Mother’s Day gift to the 13 Gold Star families who famously watched President Joe Biden repeatedly stare at his watch during the dignified transfer of their loved ones at Dover Air Force Base almost three years ago — by calling them liars — all to hawk her new book.

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Mark Schmitz, whose son Jared was one of the 13 American service members killed in Afghanistan on August 26th, 2021, told Townhall that Psaki “will be hearing from our attorney, [and] so will her publisher…to the fullest extent of the law,” adding that “what she wrote was absolutely disgusting and clearly only for political and financial gain at the expense of grieving Gold Star families.”

According to an exclusive in Axios, Psaki claims the Gold Star families and supporters who reported that Biden checked his watch while their loved ones' remains were undergoing a dignified transfer were engaged in "misinformation" and used images taken by multiple outlets to make Biden "appear insensitive, concerned only about how much time had passed."

If the shoe fits — and according to at least two AP photos, it does. Biden didn't just "appear insensitive" and concerned only about the passage of time, he was insensitive, dishonoring the dignity and gravity of the moment by being impatient. Perhaps he needed a potty break?

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Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki claims in her new book that President Biden never looked at his watch during the ceremony for soldiers killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 — contradicting news photos and firsthand accounts of Gold Star families.

Psaki's documenting lies about how Biden handled the ceremony into book form doesn't just further besmirch the Gold Star families who spoke out about this indignity. It is dismissive and cruel. Not much different than how she conducted herself from the press room podium.

Many family members of the 13 soldiers killed during the explosion at the Abbey Gate base in Kabul have consistently said in interviews and appearances before Congress that Biden checked his watch as the caskets went by.

Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, told Congress in August of 2023 that "while I stood there on the tarmac watching you check your watch over and over again, all I wanted to do was shout out, 'It's two f***ing thirty, asshole.' "

The day after the ceremony on Aug. 29, 2021, Shana Chappell, the mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, wrote on Facebook: "I watched you disrespect us all 5 different times by checking your watch!!! What the f*** was so important that you had to keep looking at your watch????"

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Psaki initially did not wish to comment on the Axios piece. However, after it was published, Psaki circled back with this statement.

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."

She added: "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"

Even with photographic evidence, videos, and the testimony of the Gold Star families that were actually in attendance on the tarmac, Psaki still dares to revise the narrative and gaslight about Biden's botched Afghanistan withdrawal and its aftermath.

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