A Fox News reporter got a lot more than she bargained for when she tried to trip up White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki by claiming that asking Americans to leave Ukraine immediately could end the way the evacuation from Afghanistan did.
Fox correspondent Jacqui Heinrich began by asking:
“If we don’t know Putin has made up his mind, why are we hearing this warning from (National Security Adviser) Jake Sullivan that Americans should get out, ideally in the next 24 to 48 hours? I don’t believe we have heard that window before.”
Psaki made it clear that it was a matter of “better safe than sorry,” adding:
“We want to be very clear and direct with American citizens about the risk that that would pose to them, that the risk that would be posed to any civilian if they remain in the country.”
Rather than let Psaki finish, however, Heinrich interrupted:
“This is now the second evacuation of Americans–”
Psaki refused to budge, steaming ahead with her reply and a recitation of the facts, which Fox reporters and viewers absolutely hate:
“It is not actually an evacuation, to be clear. American citizens can depart Ukraine, there are means of departing Ukraine. This is not a country where we are at war. We have not had tens of thousands of troops fighting a war for 20 years, so it’s incredibly different.”
Heinrich once again tried to make her Afghanistan comparison:
“Correct. You are correct in that. But it’s the second time we have urged American citizens to get out of a country…”
“Actually, we have urged American citizens to depart a number of times,” Psaki began, then adding:
“But let me finish here because I think it’s important for people to understand. We urged American citizens to depart Kazakhstan, urged American citizens to depart Ethiopia.”
That led Heinrich to ask:
“The president has frequently talked about getting out of Afghanistan as a major event. Impacted his polling, this is a current event underway. The question is, what does the administration say to critics who are looking at these two events and questioning the administration’s foreign policy approach?”
Psaki asked Heinrich: “Who is questioning us?”
Heinrich:
“Plenty of Republicans, I could name off any number of Republicans.”
“Name one,” Psaki insisted.
The Fox reporter spit out the name of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
That was all it took for Psaki to swat down Heinrich’s absurd comparison, putting her on full blast as she again used facts to rebut everything the Fox reporter had just uttered:
“Ok, here’s what I would say to Mr. McConnell. The president ended a 20-year war in Afghanistan, a war that had cost us thousands of American lives, billions, trillions of dollars, and was a failed enterprise after 20 years. He was the first president to do that after many predecessors failed to take exactly that step. We knew it would be complicated, we knew it would be challenging, he had the courage to get our troops out of there and end a 20-year war.
This is entirely different. We are not ending a 20-year war. We are trying to prevent war here, trying to keep American citizens safe in Ukraine by encouraging them to depart, by providing them information about what the security circumstances are on the ground. And I think it’s important for the American public to understand the significant differences between these different scenarios.”
Game, set, and match Jen Pskai. Mic drop.
Here’s the video: