On Tuesday, the White House Secretary, Jen Psaki, sparked controversy when she appeared to mock the United States’ newest branch of the military (created by former President Trump in 2019), the Space Force.
White House reporter, Josh Wingrove, inquired if President Biden and his administration would seek to abolish the new branch or keep it.
Paski responded in a sarcastic tone, “Wow, Space Force – it’s the plane of today.”
She then refrained from using her infamous line “circle back” to answer the question. Paski said, “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.”
Congressman Mike Rogers, the top of Republican House Armed Services Committee, told Politico in a statement on Tuesday:
“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. The Space Force was passed with near unanimous support in Congress, the same type of “unity” President Biden is supposedly working towards. Jen Psaki needs to immediately apologize to the men and women of the Space Force for this disgraceful comment.“
On Wednesday, Psaki revisited the question during her briefing. A Fox News White House correspondent asked her if she had any comments in response to Congressman Rogers.
She said, “I did send a tweet last night, you may not all be on Twitter, maybe they’re not on Twitter, that said we invite the members of Space Force here to provide an update to all of you on the important work they’re doing.”
“They absolutely have the full support of the Biden administration. And we are not revisiting the decision to establish the Space Force,” she continued.