How is the Biden team going to clean up leaving Kabul by August 31 with thousands of Americans and allies still on the ground and at the mercy of the Taliban?

Scale the number down.

Suddenly, after telling us for days that they really don’t know the number of Americans and estimating higher numbers, plus failing to say how many Americans were actually going out on the flights, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is talking real numbers and saying they only really need to get out from 500 to 1500 more.

According to Sec. of State Blinken, roughly 6,000 Americans were in Afghanistan on Aug. 14.

Since then, 4,500 have been evacuated.

He says the number remaining who want to leave the country is definitely 500, and they are checking on the status of the remaining 1,000. pic.twitter.com/QGspUlennw

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 25, 2021

That even has the Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona questioning that new number.

The number of 6,000 Americans in Afghanistan at the time Kabul was taken over by the Taliban is significantly lower than the estimates of 10,000 to 15,000 that were thrown around previously by administration officials.https://t.co/0N7UV09J1S https://t.co/EvpcWNG49w

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 25, 2021

Given the fact that they’ve lied over and over again during this catastrophe, is this scaled-down number even a real number?

Earlier today, a State Department source said the number remaining was 4100.

🚨NEW: source tells me reps from NSC, State Dept, and Joint Staff said on Senate call approx 4100 Americans remain in Afghanistan
*** the briefer cautioned that number will fluctuate as some decide to stay in country for any number of reasons. Approx 4500 evacuated so far.

— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) August 25, 2021

But then they later pulled that number back and said that Blinken would speak about the accurate number.

State Department now tells me the BRIEFER MISSPOKE on this call, and the 4100 number is not accurate.

State did not provide an accurate number, said Blinken will speak to this later. https://t.co/fYV9aDVScU

— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) August 25, 2021

Bottom line? They have no idea, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. They just know they aren’t “stranded,” and they’re going to create an achievable number so they can say they got out everyone “who wanted to get out.” Then they’ll blame anyone left saying they didn’t get back to them and declare it all a “success.” Of course, the problem will be the stories that will them come out of what happens to the Americans left behind. There’s no indication that they’ve made serious efforts to get to the people outside of Kabul either.

This, of course, doesn’t even begin to address the thousands of allies and their families who are still stranded, as well. Apparently, they didn’t even evacuate the local embassy staff yet.

Blinken on locally employed Afghan staff at the US embassy: “Along with American citizens, nothing is more important to me as secretary of state than to do right by the people who have been working” at the embassy.

Says he is “relentlessly focused” on getting them to safety

— Robbie Gramer (@RobbieGramer) August 25, 2021