I’ve been skeptical of the Biden administration’s official number of Americans still left in Afghanistan. They’ve said about 100-200 Americans were left behind (still a tragedy) but one U.S. official said that over 5,000 Americans were likely to end up stranded in the country by the time U.S. forces left.
As of yesterday, they are saying there are about 100 Americans still there—which likely means nothing has changed since the withdrawal concluded on August 30.
The “about 100” has been the consistent line from the WH for the last couple of weeks. https://t.co/trekYgYxEZ
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) September 13, 2021
But Biden Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a stunning admission today. According to him, the “best estimates are that there’s several thousand [U.S.] green card holders in Afghanistan.”
WATCH: "Several thousand" U.S. Green Card holders are still in Afghanistan according to @SecBlinken in response to my question at yesterday's @HouseForeign hearing on Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/cpFmz1Do5l
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) September 14, 2021
Several thousand green card holders? Well, that’s certainly a very different number from “about one hundred,” isn’t it? The Biden administration has been playing semantic games throughout the entire evacuation process. They reported numbers of evacuees that didn’t differentiate between Afghan refugees or American citizens. It’s possible they reported evacuation numbers for all countries evacuating their people just to make themselves look better.
Senator Ben Sasses (R-Neb.) was furious at the admission.
“After lying about this slow-motion hostage crisis for weeks and stonewalling requests for hard numbers, Secretary Blinken just admitted to Congress that ‘several thousand’ American green card holders are still trapped in Afghanistan,” Sasse said in a statement. “This is a national humiliation. Let’s be very clear about this: These men and women are legal permanent residents of the United States. When America gives someone a green card, it’s a promise that their permanent home is here in the United States with us.”
“President Biden abandoned thousands of these American residents behind Taliban lines to fend for themselves,” Sasse continued. “He has a duty to bring every single American citizen and green card holder home. No more happy talk about the blood-thirsty Taliban — get our people home.”
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