“I’ll have to circle back to you on that.” How many times have we heard that since Jen Psaki became the new White House Press Secretary?
Sometimes Psaki’s responses to questions from reporters just suck…at best.
Early in Jen Psaki’s tenure as the chief spokesperson from the White House, a couple of her pet replies seemed innocent enough and sort of funny.
However, after a few hundred times spouting off her now infamous, “I’ll have to circle back to you on that”, her generic answer to difficult questions quickly became more than redundant. Frustratingly annoying would be a more appropriate description.
But in her defense, she was asked a recent hardball question, and she didn’t deflect into circle back mode. A New York Post reporter asked about an extensively reported $3.5 million dollar payment the current president’s son received from the Mayor of Moscow.
Psaki used another tactic. She played dumb. If not for the total insanity of her response, it might be amusing. For the White House Press Secretary not to be aware of such a newsworthy story that dates back prior to the November 2020 election is beyond a stretch.
The question wasn’t even an inquiry as to if Psaki thought there ever was a payment. Most have conceded that a financial transaction did occur. The New York Post question asked what this money might have been for. What was the reason Hunter Biden warranted $3.5 million?
Well, good old Jen Psaki shifted right in line with her boss’s political playbook. When in doubt, deny and deflect. Psaki insinuated first that she was not familiar with the claim. But in the same breath, she said that the claim isn’t backed by worthy evidence.
Which is it? Was Jen confused by the straightforward question? Is she unaware of any such claim of payment being made to the president’s son, or does she doubt the validity of such a claim? Logic would assume that she can’t have it both ways.
As for evidence of such a claim, it comes from the United States Department of Homeland Security, not a spokesperson for a competing political pundit. Former President Donald Trump brought up the same topic during the 2020 presidential debates.
Candidate Joe Biden essentially did the same thing his current press secretary is doing. He played dumb. Trump’s question really wasn’t questioning if Hunter got paid, it was targeted at the same focus as the New York Post question.
What was the money for? Why did Hunter Biden get $3.5 million from a Moscow insider? Someone seems to have lost sight that a September 2020 Senate investigative report claimed such a $3.5 million payment was made to the company linked to Hunter Biden.
The question, Jen, isn’t if we think it happened. We want to know what the money was for. Maybe she should have saved herself and her boss a little embarrassment, by leaning on her old standby reply. “I’ll have to circle back to you on that one”.
Here’s the bottom line: Jen is flat out lying when she said that she hadn’t heard that claim. While she said that she’s not familiar with the claim at all, what she said next tells the rest. “It doesn’t sound like it’s backed up by a lot of evidence.”
Based on what? She said she hadn’t heard about it, so what does she mean that it doesn’t sound like it’s backed up by a lot of evidence? I thought she hadn’t heard anything about it.