If There’s Been Any Success in Iraq, Jen Psaki Sure as Sugar Can’t Find It

Day in and day out, Obama mouthpieces in various incarnations, such as the State Department’s Jen Psaki, are paid to spin and lie for the president. They spin when things aren’t going well, and they lie when things are worse than that. But as with most areas of life, actions speak louder than words. That’s why it was absolutely hilarious to watch the above blooper play out during Tuesday’s daily briefing at State.

Symbolically, you couldn’t have written a more perfect, darkly comic moment. When Matt Lee of The Associated Press asked Psaki to list a few of the examples of successes by the Iraqi military against ISIS — or even simply list one — she responded, “There have been, certainly, gains made by the Iraqi Security Forces in Iraq. I can go through some of those for you if that would be useful.”

It’s amazing after all of these years of briefings that Jen didn’t have the foresight to realize that OF COURSE Matt was going to follow up on that. Had she already forgotten what happened when he caught her flat-footed one day earlier?

Once Lee expressed an interest in hearing some of the supposed successes, that’s when things went completely downhill. I mean REALLY bad.

Psaki began nervously flipping through her notes, only to realize that there was no evidence of any success in there. “One moment…sorry. Um…well, I’ll find these,” she promised.

Awkward! I’d say if Jen has to consult her Trapper Keeper in order to locate Iraqi successes, whatever occurrences she’s pointing to probably aren’t substantial events (if these magical “notes” she refers to even exist at all). Wouldn’t real successes be the kind of thing the State Department spokeswoman would remember?

Matt and others began to laugh at the amateur, and she quickly insisted she’d find the details of those elusive successes before the briefing was over.

No word on whether that ever happened, of course.