Jen Psaki sported a pink hat emblazoned with the hammer-and-sickle symbol of the Soviet Union in a 2014 meeting with Russian diplomats, as shown in recently resurfaced photos.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday named Psaki as his press secretary should he ultimately win the presidential election. In 2014, Psaki served in the Obama administration as the press secretary for the Department of State led by then Secretary of State John Kerry.
Psaki joined Kerry on a trip to a diplomatic event in Paris in January 2014 when the two met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The Russian delegation gifted the pink hat to Psaki during the meeting, and the U.S. State Department and the Russian foreign ministry each released a photo of all four together at the time with Psaki wearing the Soviet-style hat, according to Fox News.
Russia responded w/ #Ushanka Hat gifted to @statedeptspox to stay warm&fancy during #US #winterstorm up to @Sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/yPmWTxydyE
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) January 13, 2014
The photos have resurfaced as Psaki readies to join a potential Biden administration, according to The Daily Caller News Foundation. The Soviet Union under the tyrannical rule of leaders such as Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of its own citizens in the 20th century.
The hammer-and-sickle emblem has become synonymous with communism and recalls the mass starvation, show trials, torture, and brutal oppression of the Soviet Union. Some have pushed for the emblem to be considered offensive and objectionable in the same vein as the Nazi swastika.
“Psaki was not known for being particularly soft on Russia, and she is not known to have publicly supported communism,” the DCNF reported. “The state-controlled media outlet RT referred to her in an article on Monday as a ‘Russian sanctions aficionado.’”
Kerry, who appears with Psaki in the photos, is also on deck to join Biden’s administration should he be inaugurated in January. Laast week, Biden named the former secretary of State as his climate change czar. The pick and the post elicited criticism from some Republicans. As The Daily Wire reported:
On Monday, former Vice President Joe Biden reportedly picked former Secretary of State John Kerry as his climate change czar, prompting Arkansas GOP Senator Tom Cotton to issue what was called by one political pundit the “perfect tweet.”
Cotton, taking note of Kerry’s penchant for spending time in Europe while pursuing policies that were deleterious for America, tweeted, “John Kerry thrilled at prospect of returning to his dream job of living in Central European luxury hotels while negotiating deals that are bad for America.”
Cotton and Kerry have been on opposite sides of whether America should support the Iran nuclear deal. Kerry, who was seemingly buddy-buddy with members of the despotic Iranian regime, revealed in December 2015 that he sent a letter to Iran reassuring his counterparts in Tehran that he could help them circumvent new visa restrictions passed by Congress.
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