White House press secretary Jen Psaki appears to have begun her vacation on Sunday as the Taliban continues seizing Afghanistan.
An email sent to Psaki by Breitbart News was returned with an auto-reply message noting that the White House press secretary is on vacation between August 15th through the 22nd.
The email auto-reply message asks reporters to reach out with questions to deputy press secretaries Karine Jean-Pierre, Christopher Meagher, or Andrew Bates.
It is unclear if Psaki has canceled her vacation after her boss, President Joe Biden, faces the biggest foreign policy disaster of his presidency.
Typically, White House staff schedule their vacations around the president’s time off in August when Congress leaves Washington, DC, for their own recess.
But a foreign policy incident of this magnitude usually brings all top-level aides back to work in times of crisis.
President Biden has not indicated any shift in his own vacations plans.
Biden’s schedule indicated he would remain at Camp David on Monday, unwilling to disrupt his own vacation at the presidential retreat scheduled to last until Wednesday.
Biden has remained off-camera since Tuesday, unwilling to comment publicly on the future of Afghanistan.
On Saturday, White House staff issued a 600-word statement in Biden’s name, defending his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and blame former President Donald Trump for the chaos.
White House staff suggested Sunday evening the president might speak to the nation regarding Afghanistan’s sudden collapse, “in the next few days.”
It is unclear if Biden will address the country from Camp David or return to the White House for a speech.