Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki is making amendments to her recent book after inaccuracies were pointed out in President Biden‘s actions during the transfer of 13 troops who lost their lives during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In her book “Say More,” released in May, Ms. Psaki addresses criticism aimed at Mr. Biden, particularly of his conduct at the ceremony, when the president repeatedly checked his watch during the event, portraying a lack of empathy.
Ms. Psaki initially countered the claims, stating in her book that Mr. Biden only looked at his watch after the ceremony had concluded.
However, subsequent reports by Axios highlighted discrepancies in Ms. Psaki‘s account, bolstered by photographs, video and fact-checking by media outlets, all of which confirmed that Mr. Biden did indeed check his watch during the ceremony — three times, in fact.
Ms. Psaki has since responded to the revelations, informing Axios that mentions about the frequency of Mr. Biden‘s actions regarding his watch will be omitted from future reprints of the book and its digital version. She has yet to directly address the accuracy of her initial claim.
“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,” Ms. Psaki told Axios.
A press representative for Scribner, which published the book, told the New York Post that the text “will be corrected in the e-book and future printings, due to inaccuracies as originally written.”
“Six Gold Star family members in an exclusive interview with The Post on Monday had demanded a retraction and an apology from Psaki for inaccurately writing that the highly watched moment was nothing more than ‘misinformation,’” the Post reported.
“To go and put this in the book and memorialize it for all to see is nothing short of disgusting. I mean, it’s reprehensible to me,” Darin Hoover, whose son, Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, 31, was killed in an ISIS suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate in Kabul, told the paper.
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