Space Force Has “Full Support” of Biden White House

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki left no doubt today that President Biden fully supports the Space Force after a rather flippant answer yesterday raised some hackles.

Psaki caused a bit of consternation Tuesday when she was asked whether the White House supported the Space Force.  It was pretty clear she was not familiar with the newest branch of the military, created in December 2019 during the Trump Administration.

Part of the Department of the Air Force, the U.S. Space Force joined the Air Force, Navy, Marines, Army, and Coast Guard as one of the nation’s six military services that organize, train and equip military personnel.

Because of its association with Trump, suggestions have been floating around Washington since Biden won the election that he might try to get rid of it even though he has no power to do so. It was created by Congress in the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Establishing a separate military service for space began as a bipartisan effort in the House Armed Services Committee and although DOD and the Trump White House initially opposed it, President Trump himself discovered the idea was a hit with his supporters and directed DOD to agree and work with Congress to make it happen.  On December 20, 2019 during a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, MD, he signed the FY2020 NDAA into law and the Space Force was born.

Yesterday a reporter asked Psaki at the daily White House briefing if Biden planned to keep the Space Force.  She replied “Wow. Space Force. It’s the plane of today!”, a reference to a question days earlier about whether Biden was spending much time thinking about the color scheme for Air Force One to which the answer was an emphatic no.

She went on to say it was an interesting question and she would check with their Space Force point of contact but “I’m not sure who that is.”

Republican Space Force supporters in Congress took umbrage with the comments. Psaki tried to repair the situation later in the day by tweeting that members of the Space Force team were welcome to visit the briefing room anytime to provide an update on their “important work.”

We look forward to the continuing work of Space Force and invite the members of the team to come visit us in the briefing room anytime to share an update on their important work.

— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) February 3, 2021

She was much better prepared today when a correspondent — Kristin Fisher of Fox News according to some media reports, who coincidentally is the daughter of astronauts Bill and Anna Fisher — asked Psaki if Space Force has Biden’s support.  The answer was yes, it has the White House’s “full support.”

They absolutely have the full support of the Biden administration, and we are not revisiting the decision to establish the Space Force. The desire for the Department of Defense to focus greater attention and resources on the growing security challenges in space has long been a bipartisan issue informed by numerous independent commissions and studies conducted across multiple administrations. And thousands of men and women proudly serve in the Space Force. As you know, it was established by Congress, and any other steps would actually have to be taken by Congress, not by the administration. — Jen Psaki

 

.@PressSec on Space Force: “They absolutely have the full support of the Biden Administration.”

Full video here: https://t.co/9yI6o2YL0x pic.twitter.com/MLxUnbrclZ

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 3, 2021

The Space Force is a military service, but is often confused with U.S. Space Command, one of the 11 unified combatant commands that conduct warfighting using the personnel and other resources provided by the services.