White House press secretary Jen Psaki just had a photo from the wild come back and haunt her, thanks to Fox News Channel.
It comes down to a controversial phone call between President Joe Biden and then-Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on the rapid advance of the Taliban.
According to Reuters, the leaked phone calls transcript shows Biden didn’t anticipate the Taliban’s blitz across the country. Biden instead spent much of the call focused on Afghanistan’s government’s “perception” problem.
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden reportedly said during the July 23 call.
“There is a need — whether it is true or not — there is a need to project a different picture.”
At a press conference on Wednesday, Psaki refused to comment further on the leaked phone call between Biden and Ghani.
“Well, I’m not going to get into private, diplomatic conversations or leaked transcripts of phone calls,” the press secretary said. “But what I can reiterate for you is that we have stated many times that no one anticipated … that the Taliban would be able to take over the country as quickly as they did or that the Afghan National Security Forces would fold as quickly as they did.”
Two years earlier, however, Psaki was demanding transparency regarding then-President Donald Trump’s leaked Ukrainian phone call.
“It is not just the call transcript,” Psaki wrote. “The whistleblower complaint would likely have more details. We need both. And not just the call.”
Her tweet and pictures of her call for transparency have gone viral —
Critics were quick to pounce over Psaki’s apparent double-standard.
But now you refuse to answer questions on Biden’s call with Ghani? What happened to the promise that this administration will be about “truth and transparency?” https://t.co/qQQ5zeUi7W
— VF1🏁 (@TheVFCastro) September 2, 2021
Weird how you don’t want to share a phone call POTUS made now… I wonder why? 🙄
— Jeff (@jswany7) September 2, 2021
100% Agree. https://t.co/B50p1VVDla
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 1, 2021
The Horn editorial team