President Trump called in to Greg Kelly at Newsmax TV for a discussion of the cascading crisis in Afghanistan. President Trump outlines in plain speak what his plan of action was during the draw-down from Afghanistan and the absolute mess created by Biden. WATCH:
Segment 2 below:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chief’s Chairman Mark Milley held a Pentagon press briefing today about the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan. [Full Presser Here] As the Taliban has taken full control over the country and capital, the U.S. presence in Kabul has been reduced to securing the airport as a temporary fortress, and telling U.S. citizens to try and get there.
When asked about the Taliban surrounding the airport, constructing checkpoints and the inability of Americans to reach safety for evacuation, Defense Secretary Austin said the military “don’t have the capability to…extend operations.” The follow-up question was then about the U.S. essentially having to negotiate safe-passage with the Taliban… and rather than say, “Yes, that is accurate“, the question left Secretary Austin speechless. WATCH:
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Ooof… THAT, my friends, is exactly what FUBAR looks like!
We must be cautious in reviewing any/all media articles about the fluid situation in Afghanistan, as both Leftist and NeoCon media are framing the crisis story to fit their preferred narrative. All DC media reporting should be viewed through the prism of cynicism and skepticism.
CNN is reporting the State Dept. Narrative that Taliban have surrounded the Kabul airport and there is no safe way for Americans to reach the evacuation point. However, the Pentagon is reporting that the Taliban is “not interfering in their mission” to facilitate the evacuation of Americans, and Taliban members “are not stopping U.S. citizens with American passports” from traveling to the airport.
When we review a State Department position (DoS) on anything, it should be noted that DoS personnel are, by ideological tribe, very dramatic, tender and pearl-clutching leftists in their worldview. State Department officials are the wokeist of the international woke community. As a consequence of their alignment and role, CNN is almost identically predisposed to the dramatic flair.
CNN takes the DoS bulletin and proclaims that Americans are trapped outside the airport by the Taliban. There is no evidence of this claim being accurate. There’s a difference between “we cannot ensure safe passage”, and “your passage is unsafe.” Yes, things are sketchy and unstable, but there have been no reports of safety incidents with any Americans.
Earlier this evening President Trump appeared for a lengthy and detailed interview with Sean Hannity. The topic of the failed Biden administration effort to withdraw from Afghanistan was the primary focus. [Note: These raw videos are likely to be removed overnight. If you missed it, watch while you can].
https://youtu.be/2tNSQBOdi3Y
The number of Americans trapped in Afghanistan is actually unknown. According to Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby, somewhere around 5,000 to 10,000 are known, but the number could be 20,000. Those U.S. citizens are not at the airport in Kabul, and need to reach the airport in order to be evacuated.
Several media reports outline that the Taliban have checkpoints around the airport presumably looking for people who were aligned with the former government. Unfortunately, given the nature of media bias and previous propaganda, it is challenging to determine the level of risk or threat to any American. There have been no reports of Americans killed or taken hostage. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby outlines the current priority is to secure the airport, that’s what the additional troops are intended to do. WATCH:
…”Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up“… ~ Barack Obama
There is no such thing as “idiot proof.” As soon as you think you’ve developed an “idiot proof” system, you will discover Joe Biden.
Apparently, the communications goal from the White House team was to create a strawman argument around the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, and totally avoid the main point of crisis right now being the method and manner of the withdrawal.
However, he went one step further which makes it worse.
Joe Biden blamed the Afghan people, currently being hunted in the streets of Kabul by the Taliban, for not availing themselves of earlier opportunities for evacuation at the time when Joe Biden and his Secretary of State were telling them the country was in no imminent threat of collapse.
…”I know that there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghans — civilians sooner. Part of the answer is some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier — still hopeful for their country. “… [Full Transcript]
The entire speech delivered by Biden was a classic example of a non-sequitur argument. Biden kept defending his decision to exit Afghanistan (which few disagree with) while avoiding the massive crisis created by his unplanned and haphazard manner/method of exit. A point that was not missed by former President Trump:
Biden took no questions, ran away from the podium and immediately hopped back on the helicopter to escape back to his bunker in Camp David.
Joe Biden is an embarrassing joke, installed on our nation.
Facing domestic and international ridicule for his abject failure to plan, organize and successfully withdraw a U.S. military presence from Afghanistan without creating a massive international crisis and humanitarian nightmare, the installed occupant of the White House has announced he will address the nation today at 3:45pm ET.
The diplomatic and humanitarian crisis the Biden team have created is so bad, even CNN cannot cover for them. As a consequence, Joe Biden is being pulled from his bunker at Camp David and pushed to read the teleprompter from the White House. WATCH:
Four decades on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee….Eight years as Vice-President of the United States…. Eight months as acting President…. and the mess Biden has created is stunning. Even the water-carrying media is having a hard time with it.
Biden’s key national security handler Jake Sullivan attempted to deflect earlier today, and even he made more of a hot mess over everything.
The crisis unfolding at the international airport in Kabul has reached horrific levels. Afghan nationals are swarming the airport in an effort to escape the onslaught, as Taliban fighters go door-to-door looking for people who have assisted the United States during the 20 year war.
At least seven people were killed at the airport, many fell to their deaths as they clung to the outside of U.S. C-17 transport planes. Horrific videos have surfaced showing desperation amid the humanitarian crisis. The AFP is reporting:
KABUL – […] Residents raced to Kabul’s international airport, where the “civilian side” was closed until further notice, according to Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. The U.S. military and other Western forces continued to organize evacuations.
Videos circulating on social media showed hundreds of people running across the tarmac as U.S. troops fired warning shots in the air. One showed a crowd pushing and shoving its way up a staircase, trying to board a plane, with some people hanging off the railings.
In another video, hundreds of people could be seen running alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moved down a runway. Some clung to the side of the jet just before takeoff. Another video showed several falling through the air as the airplane rapidly gained altitude over the city.
This is a painful interview between furrowed brow Jake Tapper, painfully wanting to defend the administration and yet the total failure is too insurmountable to defend, and an abjectly overwhelmed and clueless Secretary of State Anthony Blinken – who is trying to explain the complete mess they have created.
The background here is the history of foreign policy failures and boondoggles by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton…. and the transferring of those same geopolitical outlooks into the Biden administration. Blinken talks in platitudes of diplomacy that are irrelevant today. The Chinese, Russians and Afghanistan Taliban don’t give a tinkers-damn what the dementia nurses around Biden are talking about.
The pearl-clutching Biden/Blinken approach is just as irrelevant as the bomb-dropping Obama/Clinton approach. Team Biden act as if the Taliban cares about what Facebook, Twitter and Instagram voices say about them; it’s nuts. The single-minded totalitarian Taliban don’t care about the United States or United Nations any more than they care about Tik Tok or CNN opinions.
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I’m left wondering where Ayman al-Zawahiri is in all of this?
CNN is reporting that the White House is contemplating pulling Joe Biden from the bunker in Camp David to give a national address “over the next few days”, in an effort to try and reset his transparent foreign policy failures. Meanwhile, President Trump is calling upon Biden to resign:
(VIA CNN) President Biden is expected to address the nation in the next few days about the crisis in Afghanistan, according to a senior administration official.
One option under discussion is to have Biden return to the White House, though the official cautioned that they had not completely ruled out making the remarks from Camp David.