Immediately following President Biden’s contentious Friday press conference about the ongoing disaster he created in Afghanistan, ABC News special coverage slammed him for saying things about the crisis that were just blatantly false. Correspondents described his lies as “breathtaking” and completely out of touch with the dire reality facing U.S. citizens and Afghan allies still trapped in the Taliban-controlled country.
World News Tonight anchor David Muir turned to senior foreign correspondent Ian Pannell, still reporting from Kabul, and skeptically asked about Biden’s assertion that Americans and Afghans could get to the capital city’s surrounded airport: “The President said he has no intelligence that Americans have been unable to get there. The question, obviously, does that square with reporting on ground?” Pannell scoffed: “I mean, just totally not. I mean, the reaction was pretty much one of – I mean, it was breathtaking.”
“I mean, last night on World News, we had American citizens who had exactly that experience,” the exasperated reporter explained. He recalled how people were being assaulted by the Taliban:
They tried to get to the airport. They had waved their American passports – the President talked about all they had to do was present their passports and they’d be allowed through – they were beaten by the Taliban with the rubber fan belt from a vehicle. Multiple examples of Americans and Afghans, SIV applicants, who have now tried repeatedly. There’s one woman we’re tracking, she’s back at the airport tonight, this is her third night in a row, the gates haven’t opened, the Taliban haven’t let her through.
Pannell concluded: “It just seems the reality and the rhetoric are miles apart. I’m not quite sure what advice the President is receiving, but the truth on the ground is that these people who are in fear of their lives can’t get through.”
Moments later, after Pannell reiterated that “There is no organization, there’s just chaos,” Muir observed: “Yeah, it would seem the President has just simply invited more questions for both him and the White House...”
Minutes after that, White House correspondent Jon Karl directly blamed Biden for fueling the “disaster” by repeatedly being dishonest:
But David, this remains very much a disaster and one of the contributing factors here is when you listen to the President, he is saying things that simply do not comport with the reality that we are seeing with our own eyes, that you hear Ian Pannell describing for instance. When he says that “Every American can get to that airport, there hasn’t been an issue with that,” that doesn’t comport with the reality that you heard Ian describe. It also doesn’t comport with the reality that the State Department has been issuing, in guidance that we have seen from the State Department to Americans in Afghanistan, encouraging people to make the trip to the airport to be evacuated. But even in the State Department’s guidance, this is a cable that went out just on Wednesday, “The United States government can not ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai International Airport.” So the State Department is telling Americans that they cannot guarantee their safe passage to the airport. And you heard from the President today that we don’t even know how many Americans are in Afghanistan right now. So how can the President say that there isn’t an issue getting Americans safely to the airport?
Many in the liberal media are clearly fed up with trying to cover for Biden’s catastrophic foreign policy failures and want real answers, not lies.
Here is a transcript of the August 20 coverage:
2:18 PM ET
(...)
DAVID MUIR: I want to get to our senior foreign correspondent Ian Pannell, with us live on the ground in Kabul, where he has been for many days now. And Ian, I want to get right to something the President was pressed on there from our own Stephanie Ramos, who was there at the White House. She asked about Americans and Afghans who are in Kabul and beyond who are trying to get to that airport, but as you have reported for many nights on World News Tonight, the Taliban controls the checkpoint, the Taliban and convoys around that country, how do you get those families to the airport? The President said he has no intelligence that Americans have been unable to get there. The question, obviously, does that square with reporting on ground?
IAN PANNELL: I mean, just totally not. I mean, the reaction was pretty much one of – I mean, it was breathtaking. “No indication Americans can’t get to the airport.” I mean, last night on World News, we had American citizens who had exactly that experience. They tried to get to the airport. They had waved their American passports – the President talked about all they had to do was present their passports and they’d be allowed through – they were beaten by the Taliban with the rubber fan belt from a vehicle. Multiple examples of Americans and Afghans, SIV applicants, who have now tried repeatedly. There’s one woman we’re tracking, she’s back at the airport tonight, this is her third night in a row, the gates haven’t opened, the Taliban haven’t let her through. It just seems the reality and the rhetoric are miles apart. I’m not quite sure what advice the President is receiving, but the truth on the ground is that these people who are in fear of their lives can’t get through.
(...)
2:21 PM ET
PANNELL: There is no organization, there’s just chaos.
MUIR: Yeah, it would seem the President has just simply invited more questions for both him and the White House on why there seems to be this disconnect between what he presented to the American people today, saying no intelligence that Americans are having difficulty getting to the airport, and what you’re reporting on the ground.
(...)
2:28 PM ET
JON KARL: But David, this remains very much a disaster and one of the contributing factors here is when you listen to the President, he is saying things that simply do not comport with the reality that we are seeing with our own eyes, that you hear Ian Pannell describing for instance. When he says that “Every American can get to that airport, there hasn’t been an issue with that,” that doesn’t comport with the reality that you heard Ian describe. It also doesn’t comport with the reality that the State Department has been issuing, in guidance that we have seen from the State Department to Americans in Afghanistan, encouraging people to make the trip to the airport to be evacuated. But even in the State Department’s guidance, this is a cable that went out just on Wednesday, “The United States government can not ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai International Airport.” So the State Department is telling Americans that they cannot guarantee their safe passage to the airport. And you heard from the President today that we don’t even know how many Americans are in Afghanistan right now. So how can the President say that there isn’t an issue getting Americans safely to the airport?
And then the other thing, David, when the President said there have been no questions from our allies, that our allies have been united on this. That’s not exactly correct either. I mean, we saw in the last few days the British defense minister literally in tears, breaking back tears talking about how the west looks weak in all of this and the fear of terrorism going forward.
MUIR: And certainly international publications, The Economist among them, papers all over the world have questioned President Biden’s decision-making, at least in handling the pullout of these troops and not seeing what could possibly happen given what we’ve witnessed this week.
(...)
