Biden jokes about evacuation when pressed on Americans being left behind
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Joe Biden joked about the evacuation with an NBC News reporter as thousands of Americans and Afghans still wait to escape the country.
The president, who has strongly defended his administration’s response to the crisis, was asked by Peter Alexander what he would do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the 31 August deadline to withdraw US troops.
And the smiling Commander-in-Chief told Alexander, “You’ll be the first person I call.”
The question was shouted at Mr Biden as he attended a White House cybersecurity summit with business leaders, and the audio on the White House feed cut off as the president responded.
Mr Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki later defended Mr Biden’s remark in her daily briefing with reporters, pointing out that he had given the country a string of updates on the situation in Kabul.
“He has also highlighted the fact that we are closely watching closely following the threats from ISIS,” she said.
I asked President Biden what he will do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the 8/31 deadline.
His response: “You’ll be the first person I call.”
Took no questions. pic.twitter.com/MlyFIayrMZ— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) August 25, 2021
But the president’s joke did not go down well with Republican lawmaker Mark Green of Tennessee, who told Fox News, “It incenses me to no end.”
Representative Green, an Afghanistan veteran, added: “I was in the military, I live by that code now: leave no person behind.
“The fact that they are so flippant about leaving Americans…. I can’t believe this. There is no excuse for pulling out because the Taliban says we have to be gone by 31 August.”
Earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that there were 1,500 Americans who had not yet been evacuated from Afghanistan.
He told reporters that 500 Americans are trying to leave the country, while the other 1,000 may want to stay behind.
There are also tens of thousands of Afghans who qualify for special immigration visas waiting to be put on flights out of the country.
Mr Blinken said that 4,500 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan since 14 August, and that the State Department has sent more than 20,000 emails and made 45,000 phone calls to identify and locate US citizens ahead of the withdrawal.
US officials say that over the past 24 hours the US military and allied planes have flown 19,200 people out of Kabul.
And as of Wednesday morning the US had removed a total of 82,300 people since the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban swept back into power.
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