Jen Psaki agrees to be interviewed about Afghanistan withdrawal operation

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki has agreed to an interview with the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan after almost a year of back and forth.

Psaki, now an MSNBC host, has agreed to the sitdown sometime this month with the committee, according to a letter from her lawyers obtained by the Washington Examiner. The interview will happen before Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) releases a report on the operation, which will be sometime before the election in November.

Psaki's lawyers raised concerns about White House confidentiality but said in the letter: "Nevertheless, as an extraordinary accommodation, we will authorize Ms. Psaki to participate in a voluntary transcribed interview accompanied by personal counsel and the White House Counsel’s Office subject to appropriate terms and conditions for the interview."

The interview will focus on the difference between what was being told to Psaki by National Security Council adviser Jake Sullivan and what was being said to the public about the operation to pull all American troops out of Afghanistan, a House Foreign Affairs Committee spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.

Originally, the Trump administration set a deadline of May 2021 to pull all troops out of Afghanistan, but President Joe Biden delayed the deadline to Sept. 11, 2021. By mid-August, the operation was expedited and the Taliban took over control of the government. In Aug. 26, there was a suicide bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, where people were being airlifted out of the country, that killed 13 American soldiers and 170 Afghan citizens.

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The Foreign Affairs Committee has been probing the details of the operation. As press secretary, Psaki was in charge of communicating what was happening inside the administration to the public. McCaul first asked for an interview in May, and she has now agreed, after multiple letters from the chairman, to come in for an interview on July 26.