As RedState reported earlier, the State Department has admitted that the Taliban are prohibiting the take-off of several flights from Afghanistan that include over 100 American passengers. What was originally framed as an issue of delayed paperwork has turned into a hostage situation, with the Taliban apparently seeking something in return for their cooperation.

While the White House has remained relatively mum on the issue, Jen Psaki was finally bombarded with questions about what the president intends to do. Showing clear signs of frustration and flashes of anger at times, Psaki talked herself in circles, blaming self-inflicted wounds for the administration’s inability to facilitate the rescue.

Here are the first two questions and then we’ll get to the main event, which as always, is Fox News’ Peter Doocy.

CNN's @Phil_Mattingly on the Taliban holding Americans hostage: "Trying to square where things actually stand…What is your understanding of the hold up & if the Taliban is preventing them, what levers do you have right now?"

Psaki downplays it, saying it's only a few Americans pic.twitter.com/Vz18Mm59AG

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 8, 2021

VOA’s @pwidakuswara: “[I]s the administration saying that the Taliban is the only one who has access & who is able to check passenger documentation against these flight manifests? And if so, what is stopping the U.S…from sending personnel…to allow the passengers to leave[?]” pic.twitter.com/DXKF51mVDB

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 8, 2021

Psaki repeatedly claims there are only a handful of Americans involved in this. One, if it were just a single American, that would not make the situation any less important. But two, we know that there are over 100 Americans on these flights. That’s far more than a “handful” or a “very small number.” That’s more than during the Iran hostage crisis, which literally wrecked Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

The press secretary also couldn’t seem to make up her mind on what the hold-up is. On one hand, she admits that the Taliban are not allowing the flights to take-off and that the administration has no control over that. On the other hand, she talks about how the White House doesn’t want to allow the flights to land at US military bases because of a lack of vetting of all on board.

Obviously, it’s extremely rich to see the author of the Southern border crisis use a lack of vetting as an excuse given they are releasing unvetted illegal immigrants into the interior with little hope of any follow-up. Still, if that were the issue, why isn’t the State Department just telling those coordinating the flights (Glenn Beck is involved in eight of them I believe) to put all the Americans on one flight and the Afghans on the rest of the flights so as to keep them separate? Then you could at least get that single flight of Americans home.

But obviously, there’s a lot more going on here than Psaki wants to admit. Fox News’ Peter Doocy did his best to extract more information and just nailed the press secretary on who is at fault here.

Do you think Jen Psaki is tired of talking about Afghanistan and the Americans the Biden Administration abandoned? pic.twitter.com/YTDLZPmSkj

— MRCTV (@mrctv) September 8, 2021

When Psaki tries to deflect by saying we don’t have personnel on the ground to check the documentation, Doocy is ready, asking in his follow-up “whose fault is that?” The press secretary then tries to claim that it’s not a matter of who is at fault. But it absolutely is a matter of who is at fault. Americans are being held hostage by the Taliban because Biden and his administration decided to pull out before making sure they were all brought home. Not only was that in breach of a promise the president made, but it set up the dangerous situation playing out now.

Yet, in the end, what struck me the most about Psaki wasn’t just her answers, but her tone and lack of empathy. She seemed defiant and angry, lecturing the reporters as if they were dumb for even asking about Americans being held by the Taliban. She continually downplayed the situation, acting as if those Americans didn’t matter. They are just a “handful,” after all, according to Psaki. It was just a terrible look, and it’s the result of a White House that is in full-scale collapse.