Jen Psaki Claims There Are No Americans Stranded In Kabul During Testy Exchange With Reporter

For multiple days running every major outlet from The Washington Post to Associated Press to CNN to NBC have run stories describing the plight of stranded Americans who’ve desperately sought to make their way to Kabul’s international airport, where evacuation flights have steadily ramped up.

So naturally the press pool was taken aback Monday when White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed that no, there are not Americans stranded in Kabul – though clearly she was engaged as usual in stretching the very meaning of words to the point of laughably obvious spin and blatant falsehood…

Psaki says “no Americans are stranded” in Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/llLYD2m7ds

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 23, 2021

Psaki was sparring with Fox’s Peter Doocy, not for the first time, in an exchange prompted by this question: “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?”

A visibly angry Psaki called his assertion “irresponsible” and then stated bluntly:

“I think it’s irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home.” 

An incredulous Doocy followed by seeking to clarify that the official White House position is that “there are no Americans stranded”… to which Psaki doubled down, responding in the testy back-and-forth:

“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,” she said. “We are going to bring them home and I think that’s important for the American public to hear and understand.”

The absurdity of Psaki’s statement given the constant flood of on the ground reporting detailing the plight of those US citizens stranded was enough for Psaki to lose even CNN’s support on this one.

Indeed, Jake Tapper himself later exposed her statements as false…

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

Of course, for much of last week when the crisis was at its most intense, resulting in many Afghan civilian deaths in and around Hamid Karzai airport, Psaki was “out of the office” on vacation with her family, a vacation which was cut short as increasingly the MSM began turning on the Democratic president along with the public, slamming the unfolding debacle. 

Jen Psaki: “The test of competence and of leadership is not about how you operate on your best day. It’s about how you operate when the chips are down, when things are difficult.”

Biden was on vacation when Kabul fell. pic.twitter.com/KHlPtK5CXI

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 23, 2021

Meanwhile, deflections continue across various departments within the administration…

Biden admin officials haven’t given a public readout of the number of Americans evacuated, deflecting Qs on it at Pentagon and WH briefings today.

h/t @DanLamothe for a helpful sidebar convo on this. https://t.co/JlFAUJxcRu

— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) August 23, 2021

This as according to MSNBC former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, who weighed in on the situation, the Kabul airport crisis is certainly “going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

“This is a country of 38 million people. We’ve got to deal with the American citizens, those who qualify for special immigrant visas but then those who also qualify for refugee status under our laws. And that population could snowball,” Johnson said in a Monday NBC interview.