Amid Ukraine Crisis, Here's the Photo Psaki Should Want Scrubbed from the Internet
With Russia dominating the news cycle after invading Ukraine, many leftists have criticized conservatives for supposedly sympathizing with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Yet it is a key member of the Biden administration who appears to be very friendly with the Russian government.
In November 2020, Matt Wolking, deputy director of communications for former President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, shared an image on Twitter that shows Jen Psaki wearing a pink fur hat with the communist hammer-and-sickle logo on the front.
“Here’s Jen Psaki hugging Russia’s Foreign Minister and Russia’s chief foreign affairs propagandist while wearing a pink hammer and sickle hat,” Wolking wrote at the time.
Here’s Jen Psaki hugging Russia’s Foreign Minister and Russia’s chief foreign affairs propagandist while wearing a pink hammer and sickle hat pic.twitter.com/WMJytaxd7J
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) November 30, 2020
According to Fox News, the picture was taken in 2014 when Psaki, now the White House press secretary, was serving in the State Department of then-President Barack Obama.
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova gave her the hat and was standing to Psaki’s direct right in the photo, the report said. To Psaki’s left was Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov.
On the far right of the photo was then-Secretary of State John Kerry. He is also serving in the Biden administration in a position referred to as the “climate czar.”
Kerry made headlines on Wednesday for lamenting that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would distract people from his No. 1 one priority — climate change.
While he began his appearance on BBC Arabic by saying he was concerned for the people of Ukraine and “the principles that are at risk in terms of international law,” he quickly made the potentially catastrophic event into a woke talking point.
The climate czar said there would be “massive emissions consequences to the war, but equally importantly you’re going to lose people’s focus. You’re going to lose, certainly, big country attention because they will be diverted, and I think it could have a damaging impact.”
Kerry then encouraged Putin to “help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on BBC Arabic: The Ukraine Crisis Could Distract the World from the Climate Crisis While Having Massive Emissions Consequences #RussiaUkraineConflict #UkraineRussie #UkraineRussiaCrisis #ClimateCrisis @JohnKerry @ClimateEnvoy pic.twitter.com/nsOC1iZeGm
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 24, 2022
The Biden administration can try to paint conservatives as Putin sympathizers all day long, but it won’t change their own ties to the Russian government.
Kerry essentially brushed off the invasion in an attempt to work with Putin on climate change, and Psaki had no issue showing off the hammer-and-sickle logo on her apparel.
Yes, it’s the hammer and sickle pic.twitter.com/sniIGMNX61
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) December 1, 2020
To make matters worse, it wasn’t just Wolking who shared the image. During Psaki’s visit in 2014, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared the photo in an apparent attempt to publicize the friendly exchange.
Russia responded w/ #Ushanka Hat gifted to @statedeptspox to stay warm&fancy during #US #winterstorm up to @Sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/yPmWTxydyE
— MFA Russia ?? (@mfa_russia) January 13, 2014
If Biden administration officials want to criticize conservatives for their supposed support of the Russian government, they might want to clean the skeletons out of their own closet first.
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