Media top headlines September 20
In media news today, a Slate journalist allegedly sent a draft of a story to Fusion GPS about a possible link between Trump and a Russian bank, media pundits get mocked for trying to make news out of 'dud' Capitol Hill rally, and the New York Times comes under fire for describing Iranian nuclear scientist as a 'lover of poetry'
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was hammered Monday following her decision to invoke President Joe Biden's personal losses and grief while responding to a question on the botched drone strike in Afghanistan.
"As a human being, as a president, and as somebody who has overseen loss in a variety of scenarios, both as a leader and personally, his reaction is it’s a tragedy, and every loss is a tragedy, and he supports the effort to move this forward as quickly as possible and to have a thorough investigation," Psaki said to a reporter after being asked what Biden's reaction was upon hearing of the failed strike.
The strike, intended to target ISIS-K terrorists following last month's terror attack that killed 13 U.S. service members in Kabul, instead killed seven children, among other innocent victims.
Biden has frequently spoken about his personal experience with grief and how he's overcome it during his long political career. Biden's infant daughter and first wife were killed in a car accident in 1972, and his son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.
Psaki made a similar remark last month when pressed about criticism by some of the family members of the service members killed in Kabul that Biden was dismissive about their own grief.
"His message to all of the family members who were there and those who were not even in attendance is that he is grateful to their sons and daughters, the sacrifice they made to the country," Psaki said. "That he knows firsthand what it’s like to lose a child and the fact that no one can tell you anything or say anything or there’s no words that are going to fill that hole that is left by that."
The Washington Free Beacon's Brent Scher put Psaki's remarks under the category of the "Biden has personally experienced loss" defense mechanism, writing "Oh come on."
National Review's Dan McLaughlin hit the White House for "veering into self-parody territory" while acknowledging the significance of his family history with loss.