Photos have resurfaced of Jen Psaki, now the White House press secretary, posing with Kremlin officials in 2014 while wearing a Russian-style hat.
SO WHAT
Psaki has helped push the narrative that conservatives are too cozy with Russia, but maybe she should sit this one out.
THE PHOTO
Psaki, then the Obama State Department spokesperson, received the traditional “ushanka” as a gift during a diplomatic meeting in Paris with then-Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his spokesperson, Maria Zakharov.
The fuzzy pink hat bore the hammer and sickle insignia long associated with Soviet communism.
- “That hat seems to have a strange logo. Does anyone recognize it?” right-wing commentator Mike Cernovich tweeted Thursday about one photo of Psaki in the hat.
- Another popular conservative Twitter account quipped Friday that there are “more pictures of Jen Psaki wearing a Russian hammer & sickle pin than an American flag pin.”
- Critics of the Biden administration have repeatedly highlighted the photos, including after Psaki was appointed press secretary in December 2020.
WHY IT’S A BAD LOOK
Asked Thursday about recent comments by former President Donald Trump, Psaki said “we try not to take advice from anyone who praises President [Vladimir] Putin and his military strategy, which I believe is what happened there.”
Psaki has a long history of insinuating that Republicans are playing into the Kremlin’s hands.
- In September 2020, she amplified a now-discredited news report suggesting Trump knew about Russian bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan but defended Putin anyway.
- On Twitter in February 2017, amid hysteria over since-debunked allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, Psaki repeatedly insinuated that Trump had nefarious ties to the Kremlin.