Fox’s Chris Wallace said that Jen Psaki is “one of the best White House press secretaries ever,” prompting backlash from critics of Psaki’s tactics to protect the Biden administration.
Wallace, an outlier at the right-leaning network, praised Psaki’s performance when pressed by Fox’s White House correspondent Peter Doocy about President Joe Biden’s claims that he had been to the border.
“Honestly, as somebody who’s spent six years in the White House, my immediate reaction was, ‘Those are two people at the top of their game.’ … I think that [Doocy] has become the Sam Donaldson of this White House press corps … and Jen Psaki, I think, is one of the best press secretaries ever,” Wallace said. “I don’t know that anything was particularly accomplished, but they both gave and got pretty good.”
WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS BIDEN’S BORDER KNOWLEDGE, SAYS HE DOESN’T NEED ‘PHOTO-OP’ AFTER 2008 VISIT
His praise of Psaki was criticized by some on Twitter.
Chris Wallace: “Jen Psaki is one of the best press secretaries ever”
TURN OFF FOX NEWS. pic.twitter.com/QJIqSvGYfY
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) October 22, 2021
Today I learned that Chris Wallace has never seen a White House press briefing before today since he thinks Jen Psaki is the best Press Secretary he’s ever seen.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even activists posing as journalists, but that is a bold statement.
— Danny Tarkanian (@DannyTarkanian) October 22, 2021
Chris Wallace, @FoxNewsSunday, you’re a clown. https://t.co/Ghu6lREjsJ
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) October 23, 2021
Some have argued Psaki employs obfuscation and dishonesty in efforts to redirect reporters away from unflattering stories about Biden amid dropping poll numbers.
In July, emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act showed that Biden’s dog Major bit Secret Service agents every day for eight days, but Psaki said there had only been one biting incident.
“I know you do keep the dog in the news in the briefing room, so thank you for that,” Psaki said, declining to address a reporter’s charge she had offered a “misleading” account. “As we’ve stated previously, Major has had some challenges adjusting to life in the White House. He has been receiving additional training, as well as spending some time in Delaware, where the environment is more familiar to him and he is more comfortable.”
During the fallout from the Afghanistan withdrawal, leaked audio between Biden and the president of Afghanistan revealed early concerns that the Afghan army would be defeated — despite the official stance that there was no indication the Taliban would take over the country as quickly as it did. Psaki said she didn’t want to get into “diplomatic conversations” before repeating the administration’s stance that “our national security team and no one in Congress or, I would say, most people out in the public anticipated that the Taliban would be able to take over the country as quickly as they did.”
When it was revealed that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was on paternity leave as the supply chain crisis worsened, she said, “He’s at work. I was on a conference call with him this morning,” and then told the reporter who asked that she was actually asking about the administration’s stance on parental leave, which Psaki emphasized it supports.
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The White House press secretary also dismissed supply chain concerns as the “tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed,” downplaying concerns as the prices of goods, such as food, have skyrocketed.
Psaki has served as the White House press secretary since Biden’s first day in office on Jan. 20. She succeeds Kayleigh McEnany, who was noted for her own rows with the press on behalf of the Trump White House.
