It becomes more clear by the day that President Joe Biden does not have any care in the world about getting Americans out of Afghanistan by the Aug. 31 deadline. He closed out a recent briefing on cybersecurity when New York Times reporter Peter Alexander asked the president what they plan to do if Americans remain in Afghanistan past the deadline. After they cut the feed, President Biden gave Alexander a half-smile before replying, “You’ll be the first person I call.”
Alexander later tweeted about his joking response, adding that the president took no further questions. New York Post Kelly Jane Torrance said that Biden spoke very briefly on Afghanistan after “pushing his massive spending bill.” White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich tweets how there are “audible scoffs from some in the press pool” as the President once again delivered remarks without taking any questions.
At this point, Biden is facing criticism from all sides of the press for his unwillingness to take any questions related to Afghanistan or offer any details about the ongoing situation.
Even Al Jazeera, a Middle-East television news channel, has been saying that the Taliban is “very welcoming” to journalists and “actively asking for more questions” while President Biden “slammed his book shut, took no questions and walked out of the room.”
The White House audio feed was cut right before Biden cracked his remark to the reporter about the Aug. 31 deadline. He held a long smirk at the end of the broadcast, but the comment was not caught on audio.
Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki why Biden made a joke at the “tail end” of his cybersecurity speech. Doocy asked what was so funny.
“Well, I think the question he was asked…is about when he will provide information about a decision on August 31. I don’t want to paraphrase the question if that was an inaccurate description of the question,” Psaki said.
Doocy said it was “very important” and that a lot of people were watching. Psaki reiterated that it was an important question and that what she can convey from his comment is that they are “on track to complete our mission by Aug. 31.”
The estimates on the number of Americans still in Afghanistan range from 6,000 to 10,000 people, with only 5% of those evacuated being American citizens so far. More than 82,300 had been airlifted from Kabul since the Afghan government’s collapse. Only 4,400 of those rescued were Americans. While President Biden has continued to promise to get Americans out, it is clear that our own citizens aren’t even his priority at this point.
Psaki insists that the president is contingent on achieving their objectives and coordinating with the Taliban, but his ratings are plummeting by the day. To be cracking jokes at this time is just another example of his crippling mental state and the inability to distinguish the difference between what is appropriate and inappropriate anymore. At this point, reporters are doing whatever they can to get answers but Biden has checked out.
