As we reported earlier, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had a meltdown when Fox’s Peter Doocy dared to ask about the Americans still “stranded” in Afghanistan.
PSAKI: "I think it's irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not."
DOOCY: "'There are no Americans stranded' is the White House's official position on what's happening in Afghanistan right now?" pic.twitter.com/0FEq5VkO6V
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 23, 2021
Doocy: “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?”
Psaki: “First of all, I think it is irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing 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.”
Doocy: “‘There are no Americans stranded’ is the White House’s official position on what is happening in Afghanistan right now?”
Psaki: “I’m just calling you out for saying 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 and I think that’s important for the American public to hear and understand.”
Yet, that’s just a blatant lie. We’ve seen countless reports of Americans who haven’t been able to get to the airport. The Biden team doesn’t even seem to know how many Americans they need to rescue and it’s already been reported that they don’t even have a plan for getting people outside of Kabul to the airport. So unless they’ve since come up with a plan to get all those thousands outside the city, it’s actually a very fair question to ask and keep asking: what happens to those people?
Needless to say, people couldn’t believe that Psaki said that and acted like the aggrieved party because Doocy used that word. She’s more upset about Doocy using the word, it seems, than Americans being behind enemy lines.
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) let her have it.
This is a boldfaced lie!
My office literally just received word of a Tennessean STRANDED in Afghanistan. https://t.co/naM8g4OMRP
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) August 23, 2021
This is just not true.
And it’s a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who are stranded right now. https://t.co/ngiGfddDqs
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) August 23, 2021
Many Americans are trapped behind terrorist lines and unable to get to the Kabul airport.
I’d call that stranded, @PressSec.https://t.co/bDBBYtyl8G
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) August 23, 2021
Blackburn and Cotton have been actively working to help the stranded Americans.
Matthew Downer, Cotton’s senior adviser:
An American woman is stranded in Kabul, all alone.
When she tried to get to the airport, the Taliban beat her for the crime of traveling without a male escort.
She has heard nothing from the State Department—only from free lance volunteers a world away.
— Matthew Downer (@mpdowner) August 23, 2021
Jen Psaki: “I think it's irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not."
What’s IRRESPONSIBLE is stranding Americans in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/SAnR0kl57p
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 23, 2021
Fox News’ Trey Yingst, who is now one of the few news people on the ground there at the airport:
Americans are stranded in Afghanistan.
Denying this fact is ignoring reality.
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) August 23, 2021
Jen Psaki: “I think it's irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not."
What’s IRRESPONSIBLE is stranding Americans in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/SAnR0kl57p
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 23, 2021
Fox described the situation of one American woman who was stranded and unable to get out.
“I really have given up hope, given up on the hope of going to the airport,” the woman, whose identity is being withheld due to concerns for her safety, told Fox News. “It’s just not possible to make it through all those people.”
She said there are as many as 20 Taliban checkpoints between her and the airport – and she’s one of an uncertain number of American citizens trapped behind enemy lines.
She was whipped by Taliban fighters on one attempt to get through, she said. A man standing near her was shot in the head on another try, leaving his wife and baby in tears. Since then, she’s been in hiding.
Fox asked the White House for a reaction to their story about the woman. The White House stranded them, giving no response.
When even CNN has to call you out, you know the lie is bad.
CNN’s Jake Tapper fact checks Psaki for saying Americans are “not” stranded in Afghanistan.
“There are no doubt Americans who feel stranded in Afghanistan right now.” pic.twitter.com/MaaYR1gMiE
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 23, 2021
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