Pentagon won't give exact number of Americans evacuated from Afghanistan
During a Pentagon briefing on Monday, spokesperson John Kirby refused to disclose the number of Americans who have been evacuated from Afghanistan, saying only “several thousand.” When pressed, Kirby said he did not want to state a precise number because “the number is very fluid and it literally changes nearly by the hour.”
Video Transcript
- John, were you being deliberately vague when you said the number of Americans was several thousand or was it because you're not sure of the number? If you need to check the number, I mean, that's, that's the most important number here and the number of Americans. So if it's just a matter of checking the number, can you do that and give it to us, or if you're being deliberately vague, tell me why you're being deliberately vague.
JOHN KIRBY: I think I'm just going to leave it at several thousand right now.
- Well, then tell us why.
JOHN KIRBY: Because I think the number is very fluid. And it literally changes nearly by the hour.
- It's not more fluid than these 11,037.
JOHN KIRBY: I want to leave it several thousand right now. [INAUDIBLE].
