White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki bizarrely suggested on Tuesday that Russia might have intended to sanction President Joe Biden’s deceased father rather than the president himself.
Psaki fielded a question on the issue — following a new round of sanctions from Russia against a number of American political officials — during the press briefing from CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang.
WATCH:
CBS News' @weijia asks White House Pres. Secretary Jen Psaki about new Russian sanctions on @POTUS:
"President Biden is a junior, so they may have sanctioned his dad. May he rest in peace." pic.twitter.com/iAN5o3ce8x
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 15, 2022
“Sanctions were imposed today by Russia, against yourself, President Biden, other top U.S. officials,” Jiang began. “Do you have a response to that? How will it impact any of you, if at all?”
“I would first note that President Biden is a junior, so they may have sanctioned his dad, may he rest in peace,” Psaki joked. “The second piece I would say is that, it won’t surprise any of you that none of us are planning tourist trips to Russia, none of us have bank accounts that we won’t be able to access, so we will forge ahead.”
Financial Times Moscow Bureau Chief Max Seddon tweeted a list of the American officials who were subject to Russia’s latest sanctions — imposed in retaliation for crippling sanctions against the financial and energy sectors designed to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for his ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has sanctioned Joe Biden and a range of other top US officials.
The main impact of this is they can now make corny jokes on cable news about how they won't be able to access their Russian bank accounts or go on vacation in Siberia, I guess pic.twitter.com/ZQWA0Mhg4R
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 15, 2022
The full list of sanctioned American officials includes:
- President Joseph Robinette Biden
- Secretary of State Antony John Blinken
- Defense Secretary Lloyd James Austin III
- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Alexander Milley
- National Security Adviser Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan
- Central Intelligence Agency Directer William Joseph Burns
- White House Press Secretary Jennifer Rene Psaki
- International Economics Adviser Daleep Singh
- International Development Administrator Samantha Jane Power
- Robert Hunter Biden
- Former Secretary of State Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton
- Deputy Treasury Secretary Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo
- United States Export-Import Bank Chair Reta Jo Lewis
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to the sanctions with a joke, tweeting, “I want to thank the Russian Academy for this Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Russia also imposed sanctions on a number of Canadian political officials — up to and including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — within hours of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address before Canada’s parliament.
As The Daily Wire reported:
“Justin, can you imagine you and your children hearing all these severe explosions, the bombing of the airport, the bombing of the Ottawa airport?” Zelensky said, speaking directly to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “Cruise missiles are falling down and your children are asking you ‘What happened?’”
“Dear Justin … can you imagine every day you receive memorandums about the number of casualties including women and children? You heard about the bombings. Currently, we have 97 children that died during this war,” Zelensky said. “Imagine someone taking down your Canadian flags in Montreal and other Canadian cities. I know that you all support Ukraine. We’ve been friends with you, Justin, but also I would like you to understand and I would like you to feel this, what we feel every day. We want to live and we want to be victorious.”
Zelensky is expected to address the United States Congress on Wednesday. “Invoking Winston Churchill and Hamlet last week, he asked the British House of Commons whether Ukraine is ‘to be or not to be,’” The Associated Press reported. “On Tuesday, he appealed to ‘Dear Justin’ as he addressed the Canadian Parliament and Prime Minister Trudeau.”