Jen Psaki to Remove Account of Biden Watch-Checking Incident From New Book After Inaccuracies Called Out
Jen Psaki will remove lines from her new book “Say More” in future reprints after Axios called out inaccuracies in her description of President Biden’s actions during a ceremony for soldiers killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In the book, Psaki details Biden’s demeanor during the event, claiming that he never looked at his watch during the ceremony – only after it ended – which has been refuted in reports from the event.
The book, according to Axios, “is the latest instance of current and former Biden administration officials downplaying or misrepresenting controversial episodes from the Afghanistan withdrawal ahead of the 2024 election.”
Psaki, former White House press secretary turned MSNBC anchor, wrote that Biden critics used the watch-checking detail to engage in “misinformation” about the president, in an effort to make “him appear insensitive, concerned only about how much time had passed.”
However, Axios pointed out that Psaki’s account of the ceremony is at odds with fact-checks, news agency photos from the event, and on-the-record statements from Gold Star families who attended the event.
In the book, Psaki also mistakenly cited a passage from the Washington Post to bolster her account, however, the sentences were actually from USA Today.
Though Psaki initially declined to comment on the inaccuracies, after the Axios story was published she said 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.”
“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,” Psaki told Axios.
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