The Biden-Harris administration has found itself facing arguably the worst foreign policy crisis in American history, yet Vice President Kamala Harris is treating concerns from the press as yet another laughing matter.
WATCH: Kamala Harris laughs when a reporter starts to ask her about Americans trapped in Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/7863Seq36C
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 22, 2021
Reporters greeted Harris as she departed for her Southeast Asia trip, with Singapore being the first stop. "What's your response to reports off Americans--" one reporter asked before being cut off by the vice president. "Hold on, hold on. Slow down, everybody," a chuckling Harris said.
The reporter was not able to finish asking her question, though Harris did address Afghanistan. "We couldn't have a higher priority right now, the vice president said. "A particular high priority is making sure that we safely evacuate American citizens, Afghans who worked with us, Afghans at risk, including women and children, and that is one of our highest if not the highest priority right now."
Despite Afghanistan being considered such a high "priority," that did not appear to be the case as the chaos was unfolding in Afghanistan. Rather the White House and President Biden communicated a focus on efforts to do with combatting the Wuhan coronavirus, in official White House statements as well as Twitter.
As Alexandra Jaffe warned for the Associated Press when it comes to the trip:
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But there are also substantial risks. A longtime district attorney and former senator, Harris is largely untested in diplomacy and foreign policy. Her swing through Vietnam could draw unwanted comparisons between the humiliating withdrawal of U.S. troops there in 1975 and the tumultuous effort this week to evacuate Americans and allies from Afghanistan. And it’s all happening in the shadow of China, whose growing influence worries some U.S. policymakers.
“She’s walking into a hornet’s nest, both with what’s taking place in Afghanistan, but also the challenge of China that looms particularly large in Vietnam,” said Brett Bruen, who was global engagement director during the Obama administration and a longtime diplomat. “On a good day, it’s walking a tightrope. On a not so good day, it’s walking a tightrope while leading an elephant across. There’s just an enormous set of issues that she will run into from the moment that Air Force Two touches down.”
As POLITICO pointed out in a Friday edition of the West Wing Playbook titled "Who the White House trusts on TV to address Afghanistan," Harris is not one of those trusted figures. In fact, she has not made many public appearances or spoken much about the disaster there, which has earned its own mockery.
Sounds of Silence videos never get old. pic.twitter.com/kNzC0weHlL
— Ian Prior (@iandprior) August 20, 2021
Reporting from Jaffe and others reminds readers that Harris' previous foreign trip, to Guatemala and Mexico in late June, was less than successful.
In Friday remarks President Biden vowed he would evacuate Americans in Afghanistan as well as those who helped Americans, but criticism still abounds.
Al Jazeera reported on Sunday that 2,500 Americans have been evacuated. However, there are still up to 15,000 Americans and a whopping estimated 50,000-60,000 Afghan allies who neeed to be evacuated.
And, as Spencer reported on Saturday, "Pentagon Apparently Unaware of Kabul Embassy's Warning to Avoid Airport." That dire warning told Americans not to travel to the airport, due to "security threats" there.
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