Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki allegedly asked the Foreign Affairs Committee to pass along an apology to Gold Star families for denying President Biden checked his watch during a ceremony.
Psaki agreed to a closed-door transcribed interview with the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Friday regarding the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan evacuation. Psaki served as press secretary at the time and allegedly answered questions regarding claims that she made multiple untrue statements regarding the operation.
Reports from inside the committee suggested at one point Psaki was asked if she had any comments for the Gold Star families offended by her previous statements.
Psaki sat down for an interview for the Foreign Affairs Committee on Friday. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
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“The chairman asked Ms. Psaki about her comments regarding President Biden looking at his watch while at Dover [Air Force Base] and asked her if she had anything she wanted to say to the families on the record,” Leslie Shedd, Foreign Affairs Committee majority spokeswoman, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
The statement continued, “After pressing her multiple times if she had something she wanted to say to them, Ms. Psaki asked the chairman to pass along her apology to the families and to express her regret for the pain she caused them. He has done that.”
GOP Florida Rep. Mike Waltz appeared to confirm the exchange, congratulating Psaki on X for doing the right thing.
“Just left the House Foreign Affairs interview with Jen Psaki. She agreed to apologize to the 13 Afghanistan Gold Star families whom she falsely contradicted in her book when she said Biden didn’t look at his watch. This isn’t a partisan or gotcha moment. This is the right thing to do as fellow Americans and I pray she follows through,” Waltz wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Foreign Affairs Committee and Psaki for confirmation and have yet to receive a response.
The incident the committee referenced was a wildly-attacked video and subsequent image of Biden checking his watch multiple times during a dignified transfer ceremony for the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in a terrorist attack during the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Jen Psak’s book contained a misleading claim about President Biden’s infamous watch-checking at a dignified transfer ceremony. (Left: (Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images), Right: (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images))
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Psaki came under fire in May when her recently published book “Say More” previously claimed “the president looked at his watch only after the ceremony had ended” and insisted critics misrepresented the facts to make Biden appear insensitive. However, Gold Star families have long said they saw Biden check his watch multiple times during the dignified transfer ceremony.
She was later forced to edit and remove the line from future reprints and digital copies of the book.
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Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
