Jen Psaki apologizes to Afghanistan Gold Star families in congressional interview

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki extended an apology to the families of the 13 Gold Star military service members who died in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 on Friday.

During a transcribed interview, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) asked Psaki about her comments that she wrote in her book, Say More, that stated President Joe Biden never looked at his watch during a ceremony in late August 2021 honoring soldiers killed in Afghanistan returning home.  

“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. “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.”

Biden’s demeanor during the return of the service members killed in Afghanistan has been used by Republicans and former President Donald Trump as evidence to claim that Biden is an unempathetic leader. Psaki’s statement that the incident of checking his watch never occurred contrasted with several photographs taken of the day by news agencies, including the Associated Press.

Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, told Congress in August 2023 that “while I stood there on the tarmac watching you check your watch over and over again, all I wanted to do was shout out, ‘It’s 2 f***ing 30, a**hole.’” The day after the ceremony, Shana Chappell, the mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 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????” in a post on Facebook.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), the first U.S. Army Green Beret to be elected to Congress, spoke to Psaki’s apology in a post to X on Friday afternoon.

“Just left the House Foreign Affairs interview with Jen Psaki,” Waltz said. “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,” Waltz continued. “This is the right thing to do as fellow Americans and I pray she follows through.”

Psaki’s transcribed interview began at 11 a.m. on Friday and is expected to go on for a few more hours as of 5:30 p.m., per a source familiar.