Kyle Becker
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki bristled at a question from Fox News reporter Peter Doocy at a press conference on Monday. Although she ‘called out’ the reporter for his claim, she twisted his question to make for yet another lie.
“Does the president have a sense that most of the criticism is not leaving Afghanistan, it is the way that he has ordered it to happen,” Doocy said. “By pulling the troops before these Americans who are now stranded. Does he have a sense of that?”
“First of all, I think it’s irresponsible to say that Americans are stranded,” Psaki snapped. “They are not. We are committed to bring Americans who want to come home, home.”
“We are in touch with them via phone, via text, via email, via any way that we can possibly reach Americans to get them home if they want to return home,” she said.
“‘There are no Americans stranded’ is the White House’s official position on what is happening in Afghanistan right now?” Doocy asked.
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“I am just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan, when I said we have been very clear that we are not leaving Americans who want to return home,” she said. “We are going to bring them home. And I think that is important for the American public to hear and understand.”
Jen Psaki must have gotten the message loud and clear from the White House that they need to go on offense to combat the negative public perception about the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. But Psaki’s word games notwithstanding, Americans were “stranded” by President Biden’s order to pull the U.S. military ahead of evacuating American civilians.
On Saturday, the U.S. State Department issued a warning to Americans seeking to leave Afghanistan through Kabul International Airport. Americans were instructed to ‘stay put’ unless given instructions by U.S. officials to go to the airport. It turned out that the reason for that warning were reports of ISIS terrorists potentially targeting Americans.
On Monday, there were reports of gunfire near Kabul airport. “Unknown attackers” killed a member of the Afghan military and wounded three others, according to a tweet by the German military. Six patients with bullet wounds were reportedly treated by an Italian medical aid group called Emergency.
Also on Monday, the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan refused to extend the August 31 deadline and warned of “consequences” for attempting to evacuate U.S. citizens after that point in time.
Meanwhile, the German foreign minister said: “The chaotic situation at Kabul airport has worsened in the last few hours. It is extremely doubtful that all Americans can be evacuated by August 31.”
Therefore, it very much does appear to be the case that Americans were “stranded” by Biden’s military withdrawal order, and furthermore, there is a high likelihood that some Americans will be stranded after the August 31 deadline.
Syndicated with licensed permission from Becker News. Follow Becker News on Telegram.