Biden’s Gatekeeper, Press Secretary Jen Psaki, truly has her work cut out for her. She recently tried to cover for her boss, but it didn’t work…
This is because White House press secretary Jen Psaki gave a completely disconcerting answer when she was asked just why President Biden made his latest gaffe, suddenly deciding to call President Vladimir Putin a war criminal. Indeed, we are all used to Biden being a gaffe machine, so much so that he makes Dan Quayle seem like Ronald Reagan, but this one takes the cake.
It was after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his address to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday via video that Biden finally announced that U.S. military assistance was going to the besieged nation.
It was after Biden announced that he was sending troops that Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich asked the president if he believed that Putin is a war criminal, considering everything that Biden has now seen. President Zelenskyy’s presentation to Congress showed a thought-provoking video of the horrors and devastation in Ukraine.
Biden’s first response? “No.”
President Biden then continued to make his way through the room, but it wasn’t long after that he paused, wheeled around, returned to the stage, asked the journalist for clarification, and then answered, “Oh, I think he is a war criminal.”
It was later in the day that Psaki was asked during her daily news briefing how she explained such a quick turnaround. Previously, the administration had merely said that Putin was just under investigation for potential war crimes.
Psaki said that it was due to news coverage that Biden had watched on TV regarding the matter.
“The president’s remarks speak for themselves,” she said in their typical doublespeak. “He was speaking from his heart and speaking from what he’s seen on television, which is barbaric actions by a brutal dictator through his invasion of a foreign country.”
“There is a legal process that continues to … be underway at the State Department. That’s a process that they would have any updates on,” the press secretary said.
Later in that same briefing, yet another reporter circled back to the issue, reminding Psaki that Biden had not called Putin a war criminal during the first three weeks of the crisis.
“As you note, there is an ongoing … formal process before you can use this term. So something must have changed for the president to feel like he can take this additional step today. What? What else is he seeing?” she asked.
Psaki again touched on the media coverage of the invasion.
“The president was answering a direct question that was asked and responding to what he has seen on television,” she said.
“We have all seen barbaric acts, horrific acts by a foreign dictator in a country that is threatening and taking the lives of civilians, impacting hospitals, women who are pregnant, journalists, others,” Psaki continued. “I think he was answering a direct question.”
“The President was answering a direct question that was asked and responding to what he has seen on television.”
Of course, it’s highly unlikely that Biden is watching Fox News, so that means that he is being informed by what commentators on CNN and MSNBC are saying. Lord help us all.
Of course, this all begs the question: doesn’t the president have a multi-billion dollar intelligence apparatus at his disposal to inform of the true situation on the ground?
This is when conservative commentator Ed Morrissey offered an intriguing theory regarding why Psaki walked back Biden’s remarks regarding Putin, and interestingly enough it is in regards to Iran. Biden desperately wants to get back into the Iranian nuclear deal, and Iran and the Kremlin have long been allies.
Moscow responded forcefully Wednesday to Biden’s war criminal characterization, calling it rhetoric that was “unacceptable and unforgivable”according to the BBC.
This certainly serves as a reminder of the U.S. bending over backward during the Obama term for both Russian and Iran, even though Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 and Iran was a state sponsor of terrorism.
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