Jen Psaki spun a tale that was at odds with the truth in her new book when she claimed her then-boss, President Joe Biden, never checked his watch in the presence of Gold Star families in 2021 as the remains of their children returned to the United States from Afghanistan.
The former White House press secretary has since vowed that future versions of the book will be without her revisionism on the subject.
Biden made headlines in August 2021 for his actions after 13 U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul amid his administration’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan to end American military operations there after two decades.
Even the left’s reliable fact-checkers at USA Today and Snopes confirmed the president had checked the time while he was in the presence of grieving families.
At Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Biden met with some families of the fallen and participated in the dignified transfer of the troops' remains.
He was seen on video looking at his watch multiple times during the ceremony, angering the parents and much of the public.
In her new book “Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World,” Psaki claimed Biden did not check the time during the ceremony, Axios reported.
She wrote that her former boss "looked at his watch only after the ceremony had ended. Moments later, he and the First Lady headed toward their car.”
Psaki, who is now a host at MSNBC, went on to claim that people who had accurately pointed out Biden’s perceived slight had engaged in "misinformation" they hoped to use to make the president "appear insensitive, concerned only about how much time had passed.”
In its fact check, USA Today concluded, “While Biden did pay his respects to the fallen service members, photos and video show he also checked his watch during the ceremony.”
It said the president had checked his watch “at least three times" during the dignified transfer.
That wasn't the only mistake in that section of Psaki's book: She also cited a Washington Post article to shore up her claim, when in fact the passage came from a USA Today story about the incident.
The former press secretary initially refused to comment on the inaccuracies in her book, according to Axios.
However, Psaki later told the outlet 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,” she added.
When Biden met with families of the fallen, he invoked the death of his son Beau Biden, a 46-year-old Iraq War veteran who succumbed to brain cancer in 2015. That did not sit well with some parents, Fox News reported at the time.
Shana Chappell, the mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui – who died in the attack at the Kabul airport – notably unleashed on Biden on her Facebook page after the transfer of remains ceremony on Aug. 30, 2021.
Chappell wrote, “[I] am the one who stood 5 inches from your face and was letting you know I would never get to hug my son again, hear his laugh and then you tried to interrupt me and give me your own sob story and I had to tell you “that this isn’t about you so don’t make it about you!!!”
The grieving mother also wrote, “[I] watched you disrespect us all 5 different times by checking your watch!!! What the f*** was so important that you had to keep looking at your watch????”
Snopes found reports that Biden repeatedly checked his watch in the presence of Chappell and others to be “True” and concluded after pouring over images and videos that Biden “checked his watch at least twice during the ceremony.”
