Joe Biden evacuated our military from Afghanistan before he evacuated American citizens. Biden left millions and millions of dollars in military weapons, equipment, and aircraft behind. Biden is poised to leave thousands of Americans behind, too.
But according to the Democratic Party, Biden is doing a fantastic job. In fact, Biden has “defied expectations” and has delivered results in Afghanistan.
“President Biden has defied expectations and exceeded even his own administration’s goal in successfully ramping up evacuations from Afghanistan,” the Democratic National Committee said in a statement released on Tuesday. “Not only has President Biden evacuated nearly 60,000 people from Kabul with no American casualties, but he has taken the steps necessary to finally end a 20-year long war, bring Americans home, and keep our promise to our Afghan partners.”
We all expect the Democratic National Committee to spin things in their favor, but this statement takes gaslighting to a whole new level.
“Despite initial doubts on President Biden’s leadership and ability to evacuate 50,000 people from Afghanistan in two weeks… President Biden exceeded expectations and successfully ramped up evacuations — evacuating over 50,000 in only 10 days,” the statement continues.
Umm, really? I’d love to believe those figures, but something is horribly wrong.
On Tuesday, a leaked State Department cable with evacuation numbers reflected a very different situation.
According to the cable, which was first reported on by Politico’s Alex Ward, the number of evacuations is 26,582 as of midnight on August 23, 2021.
NEW: Leaked State cable with evacuation numbers (as of Aug 23 at 1500 ET):
Total manifested since midnight Kabul AUG 23: 483 AMCITS, 6,425 Afghans natls, 8 3rd country/unknown. Total = 6,916
Total manifested since op began: 4,407 AMCITS, 21,533 Afghans, 642 TCNs. Total = 26,582
— Alex Ward (@alexbward) August 24, 2021
Where did the DNC get its 60,000 figure from? Well, what do you know! They’re coming from the White House!
Biden national security officials last week set goal of evacuating 5K-9K per day from Afghanistan
this morning, WH says 21,600 were flown out of Kabul in last 24 hours – 12,700 on US military flights, 8,900 on allied coalition flights
total evacuees in last 10 days: 58,700
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 24, 2021
Not only are these numbers inconsistent with the State Department cable, but they are also incredibly inflated compared to what Biden announced over the weekend.
“As of this morning, we have evacuated nearly 28,000 people since August the 14th, on both U.S. and coalition aircraft, including civilian charters, bringing the total number of people we have evacuated since July to approximately 33,000 persons,” Biden said on Sunday.
So on Sunday, Biden said we’ve evacuated 33,000 people since July, but the White House now says we’ve evacuated nearly 60,000 in just the past ten days.
Does anyone else find that suspicious?
Others in the Democratic Party are repeating the bogus numbers. “In fact, it didn’t take 2 weeks to evacuate 50,000. It took 10 days,” Senator Christ Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted in response to initial skepticism from the media about the Biden administration’s evacuation goals. “Lots of work still to do, but it might be time for a bit of a reassessment by the media of this operation given the actual results.”
In fact, it didn’t take 2 weeks to evacuate 50,000. It took 10 days.
Lots of work still to do, but it might be time for a bit of a reassessment by the media of this operation given the actual results. https://t.co/qbLWWcJ05q
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 24, 2021
Actually, I think the media needs to get some clarification as to what the official numbers are. Why does the State Department say that we’ve evacuated just under 27,000 people since mid-August, while the White House is claiming it’s 58,700? The 58,700 number from the White House has been widely reported, but the leaked State Department cable raises serious questions about the veracity of the White House figures. Worse yet, why is it that according to the State Department’s numbers, only 4,400 of the 27,000 people who’ve been evacuated have been American citizens? This suggests that we’re not prioritizing American citizens in the evacuation efforts.