Barack Obama-era State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, recently tapped by projected president-elect Joe Biden to be his White House press secretary, was forced to double back and correct a blunder committed earlier in the day.
On 30 November Jen Psaki went on Twitter to hail a “diverse” incoming team of the most “battle-tested” communicators, yet in her zeal tagged the wrong woman.
John Harwood, White House correspondent, was quick to swoop in on the error, tweeting that he though Psaki might mean a different Elizabeth Alexander.
Several other netizens immediately remarked on the mistake.
Psaki quickly backtracked to correct her own mistake tweeting that her “only regret” was “tagging the wrong Elizabeth Alexander”. She then proceeded to hail the right person appointed new communications director for first lady Jill Biden, touting her as a “legal eagle”.
Netizens suggested that Psaki would need to polish up her “tagging” skills.
The recent announcements come as Joe Biden continues to build his Cabinet and White House staff, led by Chief of Staff Ron Klain, while President Donald Trump refuses to concede victory in the 2020 election, decrying extensive election fraud.
During her tenure as spokesperson for the US State Department, Jen Psaki became something of a meme-generator due to her perceived geopolitical gaffes during press briefings. Particularly memorable was the staffer’s parrying with long-time verbal adversary Matthew Lee, a reporter from AP.
One of Psaki’s most infamous blunders was when she weighed in on the transportation of gas, which in Europe, according to her, flowed "from west to east."
In another instance, Psaki floundered when speaking about carousel voting - an election rigging method by which voters are bussed around to cast ballots at multiple polling stations.
As AP’s Lee asked her to explain the term, she awkwardly admitted that she was not "familiar with it".