White House press secretary Jen Psaki recently returned to the press briefing scene after going MIA for the Afghanistan crisis. She has returned – and to argue with Fox News’ Peter Doocy of course.
“Does the president have a sense that most of the criticism is not of leaving Afghanistan, it’s the way that he has ordered it to happen by pulling the troops before getting these Americans who are now stranded, does he have a sense of that?” Doocy asked.
Psaki lashed out in response that it’s “irresponsible” to say Americans are stranded because they are not and that the Biden Administration remains “committed” to bringing Americans who want to come home, home.
Doocy pushed for clarification and asked Psaki if the White House’s official position on what’s happening in Afghanistan is that there are “no Americans stranded” there.
“I’m just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan when we have been very clear that we are not leaving Americans who want to return home, we are going to bring them home,” Psaki lashed back.
Daily Wire reporter Ryan Saavedra later tweeted out that Psaki said it is “false” to say that Americans are stranded in Afghanistan. While some argued that Biden did not “strand” the troops there, others said you don’t do a military operation leaving civilians behind just to send back in more troops to get the civilians. That is the definition of stranding. Some continue to find difficulty even reaching the airport.
Psaki reiterates that there has been “no indication” that those with American passports in Afghanistan haven’t been able to get to the airport, despite an ABC news interview with an American, David Fox, who is currently stranded there. National security adviser Jake Sullivan also admits that there are “several thousand Americans” still in Afghanistan, with some being told to shelter in place rather than attempt to go to the airport.
It was also reported by John Noonan, the senior counselor for Military & Defense Affairs with Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, that the Taliban has been beating and harassing evacuees. Noonan tweeted that he had been speaking with evacuees directly on the ground of Kabul, adding that the Taliban is “not honoring their word” and “obstructing ingress points to the airport.” He tweets that the Taliban is scaring off many US evacuees and that troops are prohibited from expanding the perimeter or helping. “Many still stuck,” he wrote.
Noonan later tweeted a picture of the Taliban pointing guns at evacuees, saying that they won’t let anyone through to the airport. He received the picture from a woman who had her 10-year-old daughter with her moving towards the East gate. She texted Noonan the picture in which he added to it, “89 degrees, alone, with a little girl hurt from prior day’s rush on the gates. She had to go back.”
Another U.S citizen shared his airport plans with Noonan, explaining all of the injuries received along the way. His mother had gotten injured and his friend had a broken back from being hit with an AK-47. He told Noonan that he also had back problems from being hit with the back of the machine gun.
“We are trying to get these people out, especially State Dept and our military who are both trying to work miracles against restrictive ROEs but they don’t have a good goddamn chance if the Taliban won’t let them near the airport,” Noonan tweeted.
The Taliban is “not keeping their word” and after 20 years of studying the enemy, you’d have to have a special kind of intellect to think they would. Or at least a Joe Biden intellect. He has not only endangered and injured our citizens, but trapped them. So yes Psaki, American citizens are stranded and need our help. The Biden Administration continues to prove they are living in their own realm of reality.
