Jen Psaki Finally Caves After Subpoena Warning
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki has surrendered.
Ending months of back-and-forth, Psaki has agreed to be interviewed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee as it investigates the August 2021 U.S. exit from Afghanistan, according to Axios.
The committee’s chairman, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, has said the panel plans to publish its report on the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan before the November election.
McCaul initially contacted Psaki, now an MSNBC host, in September, but he met resistance.
Axios suggested the committee will be seeking the differences between what she was telling the American people as the spokeswoman for President Joe Biden and what the White House actually knew as Afghanistan collapsed in a matter of days, leaving thousands trapped in Kabul. The deaths of 13 American service members in a terrorist attack punctuated the chaos.
On June 5, McCaul wrote Psaki’s lawyers saying she already “has published her insight into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan for public consumption and personal profit. Ms. Psaki’s duty to appear before Congress is manifest, and her former employer’s desire to avoid congressional oversight is not relevant.”
At that time, the chairman said he would subpoena her if necessary.
On June 24, the White House counsel’s office told McCaul that the committee’s request “raises serious separation-of-powers and Executive Branch confidentiality issues.”
However, it said, “as an extraordinary accommodation, we will authorize Ms. Psaki to participate in a voluntary transcribed interview accompanied by personal counsel and the White House counsel’s office subject to appropriate terms and conditions for the interview.”
An interim report published before the 2022 elections that saw the Republicans take control of Congress condemned the actions of Biden and his administration.
“[T]he administration repeatedly delayed critical action that was necessary to mitigate the likely consequences of the decision. The result of their inaction was a chaotic Non-combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) where 13 U.S. servicemembers lost their lives and more than 800 Americans were abandoned behind enemy lines,” the initial report said.
It said that when Biden announced the withdrawal in April 2021, he made multiple claims to the American people.
“However, the Committee Minority now believes none of these claims were accurate. And worse, President Biden was likely aware they were not accurate when he made his case to the American people in April 2021,” the report said.
“The Biden administration’s own internal assessments understood that the Afghan military would be unable to defend the country from the Taliban without American air support, military advisors, and contractors, who they relied upon to enable the operation of the Afghan Air Force,” it said. “The president was warned repeatedly that the return of the Taliban was a question of when, not if.”
The initial report said the “administration made almost no effort to evacuate Afghan partners who fought side-by-side with our military.”
It said the president and his aides deceived the American people.
“The Biden administration repeatedly misled the American people about the real situation on the ground in Kabul, issuing public statements that were in direct opposition to the internal reports being sent by the State Department and U.S. military,” the report said.
“Despite claiming a robust deliberation process on withdrawal, senior Biden administration officials acknowledge that the recommendations of senior military advisors, diplomats and allies were ignored,” it said.
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