Former White House Press Secretary-turned-fiction writer Jen Psaki has been relying on "thin legal arguments" to "dodge responsibility" for her role in Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) has had enough, noting she was "willing and able to publish a memoir on her tenure as White House Press Secretary."
In a letter to Psaki's legal counsel dated May 21, McCaul reiterates a request for a transcribed interview with Biden's former spokeswoman that was first sent in September 2023. She declined to appear on grounds that "fail[ed] to justify Ms. Psaki's deliberate noncompliance with a Congressional inquiry," the letter states.
McCaul further reminds that the House Foreign Affairs Committee's "thorough investigation points to Ms. Psaki as having played an important role in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the deadly August 2021 non-combatant evacuation operation."
"As White House Press Secretary throughout this period, Ms. Psaki was charged with communicating the withdrawal to the American people and possesses key insights into the planning and decision-making regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal, the rapid Taliban takeover, and the evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies," McCaul's letter explains. "Ms. Psaki unfortunately advanced narratives regarding the withdrawal and evacuation that my investigation has proven untrue."
What's more, "Ms. Psaki acknowledges her own involvement, given her recent memoir, Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World, which includes information related to the Afghanistan withdrawal, including a false claim that President Biden never looked at his watch during the ceremony for the 13 U.S. servicemembers killed under his leadership," McCaul notes.
"It is troubling that Ms. Psaki seeks to profit off the Afghanistan tragedy, and has felt comfortable writing accounts and making them available to the general public, but refuses to make herself available to Congress, the branch dedicated to representing the interest and will of the American people," his letter emphasizes.
Psaki's testimony is still needed for McCaul's investigation, he explains, because his committee "has already attempted to obtain the information it needs to complete its investigation from the State Department, Department of Defense, and other relevant entities and individuals," but has been "unable to do so with respect to the narrative Ms. Psaki shaped and public relations strategy she led."
In addition, McCaul points out that his request for Psaki's testimony "is in accordance with standard precedent, including established practice during the Biden administration...[g]iven that the Biden White House publicly supported Congressional interviews of former Trump officials."
"I fail to understand why Ms. Psaki insists on a double standard," McCaul quips in his letter, "unless it is her contention that the deaths of Americans and allies are not extraordinary circumstances."
With a response deadline of May 28, McCaul offered Psaki three dates to choose from for her interview: June 12, June 26, or July 9.
"The Committee will not tolerate Ms. Psaki’s continued obstruction of its critical investigation and is prepared to use all the tools at its disposal to ensure America's representatives speak with her," McCaul's letter pledges.
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