White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was unable to answer when she was asked about President Joe Biden's successful foreign policy this year.
It was the kind of inquiry that White House press secretaries fantasize about: a simple, undemanding request to characterize President Joe Biden's year's largest foreign policy success.
It must have felt like a curveball after a humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, a military pact that separated vital partner France, and Russian forces massing on the Ukrainian border. This might explain Jen Psaki's inability to answer on Tuesday.
Psaki struggles to determine Biden's successful foreign policy
Critics pounced on the non-answer on social media, and the Republican National Committee released a video clip - a definite indicator of a briefing room mistake. Others retorted to Biden's own remarks, reminding out that the president had labeled the pullout from Afghanistan an "extraordinary success," as per Daily News.
Foreign policy has dominated Biden's year, from the choice to leave Afghanistan to concerns that Russia is going to attack Ukraine. Earlier in the briefing, Psaki reacted with anger to queries about the aftermath of the Afghan pullout and the presence of Americans in the country.
She claimed 479 US citizens and 450 lawful permanent residents had been assisted in leaving. Following that, Fox News's Peter Doocy wondered how it squared with prior claims of 100 to 200 individuals being left behind, before questioning if the president was still dedicated to getting people out.
President Biden delivered statements on the conclusion of the war in Afghanistan on August 31. "100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some plan to depart," Biden asserted at the time. "Most of those who remain are dual nationals, lifelong residents who had previously opted to stay because of their familial roots in Afghanistan," he added, Fox News reported.
The gap between the number of stranded citizens indicated in August and the far greater number of those already evacuated, according to Psaki, is due to Americans in Afghanistan changing their minds after the country's first collapse.
White House press secretary lashes out at a reporter
According to a person familiar with the situation, prior estimates of US Americans remaining in Afghanistan increased because not everyone who was entitled to depart had registered with the embassy. Many people originally intended to stay due to family or profound cultural ties, but eventually altered their views.
Meanwhile, Psaki described the disclosures of desperate text messages from major Fox News personalities and Republican politicians to Donald Trump's chief of staff during the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 as "disappointing" but "not surprising."
Fox News hosts pleaded with Meadows to urge then-President Trump to call off his supporters, according to text messages reviewed by a House committee investigating the attack. Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade all sent messages. Meadows' unwillingness to testify on the 6 January insurgency is hindering the inquiry, and the committee has suggested that he be prosecuted for contempt of Congress.
Per Independent, the committee agreed to send Meadows to the US Department of Justice on accusations of criminal contempt of Congress, and the entire House of Representatives will debate and vote on the motion on December 14.
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