Jen Psaki has a tough job these days. It can’t be easy to carry water for Biden right now, when you also have to carry his slippers, his pudding, and his blanky at the same time.
As was reported yesterday, Biden went to Dover to be present during the dignified transfer of the remains of our Marines, one soldier, and one Navy corpsman. Leaving aside the watch-checking incident, he then met with the families who were willing to meet with him. The report from one of the families just shows a stunning lack of empathy and understanding about loss, something that we were repeatedly told by the media that Joe Biden possessed in spades. By this account, not so much, as the sister of Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum recounts.
One of McCollum’s sisters, Roice, said she and her sister and her father joined McCollum’s wife, Jiennah McCollum, on the trip. But when it came time to meet with the president, they left the room, because she said they did not want to speak with the man they held responsible for McCollum’s death.”
Only Jiennah, who is expecting the couple’s child next month, stayed. But she left disappointed, Roice said. The president brought up his son, Beau, according to her account, describing his son’s military service and subsequent death from cancer. It struck the family as scripted and shallow, a conversation that lasted only a couple of minutes in “total disregard to the loss of our Marine,” Roice said.”
“You can’t f— up as bad as he did and say you’re sorry,” Roice said of the president. “This did not need to happen, and every life is on his hands.”
For the love of all that is holy, did no one tell him to rein it in when talking about Beau??? Losing a child to cancer, and losing a child in a terrorist attack are two completely different things! Where the hell was Jill? Isn’t she supposed to be minding him? Biden’s mind is so addled that apparently all he can focus on is losing Beau when confronted with the pain he has caused others.
Cue Jen Psaki to try and clean up the mess. She tried to pivot the press conference today away from Afghanistan, but for right now, the White House press corps is asking her the hard questions. And good for them for pressing the point about meeting the families. Psaki looked at her notes an awful lot – she had to have known that question was coming.
Another mess Psaki tried to clean up after was the emerging reports of just HOW MUCH equipment was given to the Afghan army, and then abandoned to the Taliban. It’s not good news.
A mind-blowing graphic in today's Times on what $85bn worth of lost equipment means in practice for the Taliban: pic.twitter.com/GDcuNQbb6P
— Will Brown (@_Will_Brown) August 29, 2021
And Psaki tried to spin her way out of that one during the press conference.
REPORTER: "Are Americans less safe now because the Taliban now has access to billions of dollars worth of American made weaponry?"
PSAKI: "Our objective was not to leave them with any equipment, but that is not always an option." pic.twitter.com/01ODm2smI8
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 30, 2021
Oh, so it’s OKAY that the equipment was left behind, because the Taliban and ISIS-K don’t have the capability to attack the United States… right now. And we have LEVERAGE, she says. That word “leverage” better not be code for “pallets of cash.”
Shall we see what that equipment in Afghanistan is up to right now? Hmmm, it seems that someone has not only learned how to fly a Blackhawk helicopter, but is putting it to use in a manner for which it was not intended.
— Old Holborn® (@Holbornlolz) August 30, 2021
Wow. Everyone feeling better about all the military hardware and equipment that got left behind now? But don’t worry, because Jen Psaki says that it can’t possibly hurt the United States here! No comment about how that equipment might be used against the Americans being left behind in Afghanistan, because that’s not how Psaki parsed the question. The question was “are Americans less safe” and Psaki replied with “well, they don’t have the capability to attack the United States.” Americans being left in Afghanistan are definitely less safe. The region is less safe. But hey, so long as the United States homeland is secure, then all is well in the mind of Jen Psaki.
Twenty years ago, we might have all thought that, too. We should all know better now. It seems that the Biden administration, and Psaki herself, are determined to forget what we did learn on September 11, 2001. Evil finds a way. Before, they had boxcutters. Now, they have Blackhawk helicopters.
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American Human says: BTW, the Mi-17 is a soviet helicopter. They can have that.
No doubt the reporter left satisfied that Biden had done all he could and that his unbelievable cold-hearted and tin-eared performance at Dover AFB was a crowning moment.
Babs says: I do not understand the calculus of turning off the lights and walking away from our secure air base. At the very least they could have loaded up all the ammo and hand weapons and flown them out of the country. And how about disable the Blackhawks while you have a minute?
NONE of this makes any sense at all.
[…] naturally drew attention. All the other press in the room are usually trying to kiss up to her (Afghanistan being the rare exception), and Psaki doesn’t do well when asked direct questions that she […]
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