White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki came under fire on Friday for saying that promoting “misinformation” should get you banned from every social media platform.
“You shouldn’t be banned from one platform and not others for providing misinformation,” Psaki said in Friday’s White House press briefing, calling on Facebook to “measure and publicly share the impact of misinformation on their platform.”
But Psaki herself has a history of promoting many stories on Twitter before becoming White House press secretary that turned out to be false.
After the New York Post published emails in late October 2020 found on Hunter Biden’s laptop implicating his father, then-Democratic nominee for President Joe Biden, in his overseas business dealings, Psaki promoted Politico’s much criticized story that lauded a letter signed by 50 former senior intelligence officials claiming the released emails had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say https://t.co/zRdHxTxVsl
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) October 20, 2020
Hunter Biden never denied the authenticity of the emails reported by the Post and later revealed shortly after the election that he has been under federal investigation since 2018 for his activities in China and Ukraine.
No evidence was ever presented that the emails were part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Psaki also promoted the dubious story that Russians were paying the Taliban in Afghanistan to kill American soldiers based on a leaked intelligence report.
U.S. officials would later reveal that they only had “low to moderate confidence” in the veracity of the report that Russians put bounties on American troops and Psaki would offer no apology for Biden repeatedly citing the story during the 2020 campaign.
Psaki also shared the Atlantic’s story citing anonymous sources claiming President Donald Trump canceled a 2018 visit to a military cemetery in France where American troops were buried, saying that they were “suckers and losers.” (RELATED: Russian Bounties, Find The Fraud, Lab Leak Theory: Here Are All The Media Narratives That Fell Apart)
yes—bounties on the head of American soldiers—it is insane.
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) September 30, 2020
taking a moment to re-up the fact that @realDonaldTrump knew about Russia offering bounties to Taliban to take out US troops in Afghanistan and still defends Putin. his undervaluing contribution of US troops not just horrific–but also dangerous https://t.co/iqylqMyvqA
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) September 4, 2020
The credibility of the anonymous sources in the “suckers and losers” story quickly unraveled when a FOIA’d document from the Navy revealed that the visit to the cemetery was actually cancelled due to weather.
On that Atlantic Story – @JeffreyGoldberg and his “four sources” claim Trump’s helicopter flight to the US/French cemetery wasn’t cancelled due to weather.
FOIA docs prove this to be false.
Their “sources” are failing basic fact checks – making them essentially worthless. pic.twitter.com/wAa7FrSxoW
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) September 4, 2020
Several high profile members of the Trump administration at the time also went on the record to deny the story, most notably former national security adviser John Bolton, who said that he would have written an entire chapter about it in his book if it were true.
In addition, Psaki many times during the Trump administration pushed claims of Russian collusion that were proven false by the Mueller report.
Important to remember Flynn is the tip of the iceberg. Russia ties with Trump team, and interest in creating chaos in US are ongoing.
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) February 14, 2017
Democrats don’t lose the high ground because a passionate freshman member used the F word. Who cares. We lose it if we also colluded with Russia, if we also are paid off porn stars, if we also obstructed justice. We didn’t.
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) January 4, 2019
Your don’t agree to meet with a Russian lawyer who promises dirt about your political opponent unless you are probably willing to collude.
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) July 10, 2017
For all of the Republican talking points claiming there is nothing to see on the Russia and Trump connections…a lot we know https://t.co/ESDk2n4RNG
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) March 20, 2017
The Biden administration has recently become more vocal in calling social media to censor what they consider to be misinformation, which the president said on Friday is “killing people.”
Psaki also faced criticism for saying during Thursday’s press briefing that the White House is working with Facebook to flag misleading content.