Psaki Mishears Afghanistan ‘Hostage Situation’ Question — Answers with Crack About Cups of Coffee

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and a reporter got their wires crossed when she misheard a question, and answered with a baffling wisecrack.

Psaki briefed reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday, and while she was wrapping up an exchange about Senator Joe Manchin and the potential difficulties he presents in getting President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan passed, another reporter chimed in with a question about the four planes being held up by the Taliban.

The result was momentarily confusing, but Psaki corrected course quickly, and bristled at Rep. Michael McCaul’s (R- TX) dubbing of the situation as a “hostage” crisis:

Q Sorry, one follow on that. Has he spoken to Senator Manchin since that op-ed came out?

Psaki: I don’t have any calls to preview for you. I would just tell you that we’re all — from senior levels of the White House — in close touch with a range of members, including Senator Manchin and his team.

Q Is it a hostage situation, what’s happening right now on — with those airplanes?

Psaki: If I had a dollar for every time this was called “dead” — it’s about once every few weeks — I wouldn’t be that rich, but I could buy you a nice cup of coffee.

Q No, I’m sorry, I meant the planes in Afghanistan. The Americans (inaudible).

Psaki: Oh, I thought you were talking about — so that’s an important thing, obviously. I thought you were talking about the Build Back Better agenda.

No, that is not what we would characterize it as. Those were points — that was — those were comments made by a Republican congressman this weekend.

So let me be very clear: We’re in touch with American citizens. We’re working to get them out. There are four who were able to depart overland. Our Secretary of State is in Qatar right now working on a range of options, including getting flights up and operational and going.

And what we have seen is that individuals who have documentation are able to depart, or that — that is what we have seen. But again, we don’t have a great deal of understanding of every individual on these manifests.

Watch above via The White House.