GOP Chair Flashes Subpoena Threat At Psaki After Book Mishap

 Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki could face a subpoena if she does not stop dodging an interview for a congressional investigation into the Biden administration’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a top House Republican suggested this week.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) indicated an escalation was possible while citing Psaki’s new book, “Say More,” which drew controversy for falsely claiming President Joe Biden never checked his watch during a ceremony for U.S. service members who were killed in a suicide bombing attack on the airport in Kabul.

“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,” McCaul wrote to Psaki’s lawyer on Tuesday.

The chairman, who has been trying to secure an interview since September 2023, provided three dates in June and July on which Psaki could discuss her messaging and “insights” related to the Afghanistan withdrawal. McCaul said his committee “requests” Psaki make arrangements to schedule an interview no later than May 28.

“As a private citizen, willing and able to publish a memoir on her tenure as White House Press Secretary, I encourage Ms. Psaki to refrain from relying on thin legal arguments to dodge her responsibility to appear before Congress. 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 wrote.

Psaki served as Biden’s White House press secretary from the beginning of his administration on January 20, 2021, to May 13, 2022. She then got hired by MSNBC. During her time as a cable TV host, Psaki has continued to defend Biden while disparaging former President Donald Trump and the Republican lawmakers who back him.

 

When Axios reported earlier this month that Psaki falsely claimed that Biden did not check his watch during the ceremony for slain U.S. service members, she circled back and said 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.”