White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Fox News reporter Peter Doocy are no stranger to heated exchanges, but this one may take the cake. During Monday’s press briefing, Psaki sneered at Doocy, who is known to ask the tougher questions, when he referred to American citizens being stranded in Afghanistan, calling it an “irresponsible” […]
White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Fox News reporter Peter Doocy are no stranger to heated exchanges, but this one may take the cake.
During Monday’s press briefing, Psaki sneered at Doocy, who is known to ask the tougher questions, when he referred to American citizens being stranded in Afghanistan, calling it an “irresponsible” claim.
“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.
“First of all,” Psaki responded, “I think it’s irresponsible to say Americans are stranded, they are not. We’re committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home. We’re 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.”
“‘There are no Americans stranded’ is the White House’s official position on what’s happening in Afghanistan right now?” Doocy fired back.
“I’m just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan when I said - 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,” Psaki said.
Per BizPacReview, Doocy asked if this scenario is what Biden meant when he said “America is back.”
Psaki replied that what Biden meant is that “we are going to continue to lead in the world including being the leaders in evacuating not just our Afghan partners, not just American citizens, but now also our allies. And we have done that by evacuating approximately 42,000 people over the last month. That is Americans leading. That is our men and women in our military leading on the ground. Securing the airport after the Afghans fled and didn’t secure the airport and ensuring that we are taking care of our partners as we promised to.”
The Biden administration remains unclear on how many Americans remain in Afghanistan awaiting rescue.
“We cannot give you a precise number,” Jake Sullivan said on CNN Sunday.
Sullivan said the United States had been in touch with “a few thousand Americans” and was working on making arrangements to get them out of the country.
