Top House Republican demands Psaki apologize over 'disgraceful' Space Force quip

The House Armed Services Committee's top Republican is calling on White House press secretary Jen Psaki to “immediately apologize” for her response to a Space Force question in Tuesday’s briefing.

“It’s concerning to see the Biden administration’s press secretary blatantly diminish an entire branch of our military as the punchline of a joke, which I’m sure China would find funny,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.).

At Tuesday's briefing, Psaki was asked if Biden had made any decisions on the future of the Space Force, which was established by Congress in December 2019 with support from the Trump administration.

“Wow. Space Force. It’s the plane of today,” Psaki responded, seemingly comparing the question to an earlier one about the color scheme of Air Force One. “It is an interesting question. I am happy to check with our Space Force point of contact. I’m not sure who that is. I will find out and see if we have any update on that.”

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) also slammed the White House for Psaki's comments on the Space Force, which Waltz said was established to protect national security and economic space missions from Chinese threats.

"This is just another example of the Biden administration not taking China seriously while demeaning the incredible work of Space Force personnel," said Waltz, who is a founding member of the House Space Force Caucus.

After the angry reactions, Psaki later tweeted: "We look forward to the continuing work of Space Force and invite the members of the team to come visit us in the briefing room anytime to share an update on their important work."

Thank you for posting this. My wife and I watched the clip this morning and were appalled. As some other posters noted, I do not believe that she knew anything about our Space Force. This was almost certainly a shocking display of ignorance. If it wasn’t, and she was in fact making a joke directed at our military’s newest branch... well, I am not sure which is worse.

Then, there is the “circle back” administrative lingo. It is enough to make me sick. I had the displeasure of working in an administrative role a few years ago. Phrases such as: “circle back”, “closing the loop”, “moving forward”, “at the end of the day”, “reach out to”; and the list goes on and on, were used in every meeting, numerous times; and in official correspondences. These canned phrases are little more than news-speak, i.e. totalitarian jargon.

They replace many other perfectly excellent, and original, turns of phrase in our language, and perhaps more importantly illustrate the “user’s” lack of intelligence and creativity; like dropping “F” bombs because one doesn’t know many adjectives or verbs.

This Press Secretary, I’d wager, is a real vulgarian when she isn’t “circling back”.

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