Speaking to reporters at the State Department Wednesday afternoon, Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed the U.S. government is aware of at least 6000 Americans being in Afghanistan and said approximately 4500 have been evacuated. At least 1500 Americans still need to be evacuated.
Tony Blinken says that starting Aug 14, they estimated roughly 6k Americans wanted to leave Afghanistan. They have evacuated 4,500 so far and been in direct contact with about 500 to give instructions to get to airport. They’re “aggressively reaching out" to the remaining 1k.
— Matt Viser (@mviser) August 25, 2021
When asked about what will happen to Americans trapped in the country past August 31, the deadline when all U.S. military will leave the country, Blinken explained how the Taliban will handle the situation. The Secretary did not comment on passports confiscated or destroyed by the Taliban at checkpoints outside of the airport.
BLINKEN: "The Taliban have made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, third country nationals, an Afghans at risk going forward past August 31st." pic.twitter.com/zBz88kLynH
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 25, 2021
Blinken was also pressed on State Department staff that has been abandoned in Kabul.
NBC's Andrea Mitchell uncorked this LONG speech at Blinken...
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 25, 2021
- "The Taliban...are not living up to their commitments"
- There's airport "bottlenecks"
- "We've told them for 20 yrs you can live up to your potential & now they feel abandoned"
- U.S.-employed Afghans feel betrayed pic.twitter.com/Ek2yM4CLZF
. @SecBlinken left locally employed staff to the mercy of the Taliban.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) August 25, 2021
And @DeputySecState Wendy Sherman didn’t notice.
They should both resign in disgrace.