While the world reckons with the Taliban’s quick takeover of the capital of Afghanistan over the weekend, President Joe Biden and White House press secretary Jen Psaki are nowhere to be found.
Without a word to reporters as he stepped onto Marine One on Friday, Biden departed the White House to relax at Camp David until Wednesday, just one day after his administration sent 3,000 U.S. troops to Kabul to rescue people working at the U.S. Embassy while terrorists took over other Afghan cities.
Biden had previously suggested that the United States’ withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country would be well-executed and that “there’s going to be no circumstance where you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy.” His predictions, however, could not have been more wrong, as pictures of U.S. helicopters rescuing evacuees from the roof of the embassy emerged over the weekend.
Biden, July 8: "There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the—of the United States from Afghanistan….The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely." pic.twitter.com/VO17x0wKi9
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) August 15, 2021
After the Taliban swiftly advanced into Kabul and the Afghan government collapsed, prompting President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country, Biden, who propped himself up as an international relations expert during his candidacy, simply released a written statement on Saturday blaming Trump for the crisis.
A senior administration official later promised that the Democrat would address the nation “in the next few days” about the crisis in Afghanistan. As of Monday, however, Biden does not appear to have any specific plans to return to the White House before he is scheduled to finish out his retreat at Camp David, and Vice President Kamala Harris is also avoiding any confrontation regarding the situation.
Why is Joe Biden in hiding? He should immediately address the nation and answer for the catastrophic situation in Afghanistan. Conference calls between cabinet secretaries and senators don’t cut it in a crisis.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) August 15, 2021
Psaki, the White House’s official spokeswoman and prime communicator, is also on vacation and unable to be reached at this time. Any media inquiries sent to the press secretary’s work email address are met with an automatic reply stating that she is “out of the office” for a whole week starting on Sunday, Aug. 15. The email states that any questions, comments, or concerns should be directed to deputy press secretaries Karine Jean-Pierre, Chris Meagher, and Andrew Bates.
Joe Biden is hiding, Jen Psaki is on vacation, Kamala Harris is MIA, and this is how the "not an evacuation" is going in Kabul after the Biden administration told us they had weeks to complete a mere reduction in civilian diplomatic staff. https://t.co/KZkkzUYbsu
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) August 16, 2021
