Jen Griffin claimed she “couldn’t fact check it fast enough in real-time because there were so many misrepresentations of what is happening on the ground.” Her opinion was seconded by a fellow journalist, ABC News’ senior foreign correspondent Ian Pannell. Pannell called Biden’s speech, Biden’s speech “breathtaking” and noting “the reality and the rhetoric are miles apart.”
Pannell said:
“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.”
.@DavidMuir: "The president said he has no intelligence that the Americans have not been able to get [to the Kabul airport]. The question, obviously—does that square with reporting on ground?"
@IanPannell: "I mean—just totally not."
Read more:
http://abcn.ws/3xZtTExThe most common area where critics bashed Biden’s speech was where he said that people could easily find their way to the airport in Kabul. The very next day, his administration warned Americans not to try to make their way to the airport.
Biden said:
“We have no indication that they haven’t been able to get in Kabul through the airport. We’ve made an agreement with the Taliban thus far, they’ve allowed them to go through, it is in their interest for them to go through so we know of no circumstance where American citizens – carrying an American passport – are trying to through to the airport. But we will do whatever needs to be done to see that they get to the airport.”
Perhaps he never actually made a deal with the Taliban and they are beating people and confiscating their ID documents such as their driver’s licenses and passports. Or just maybe the Taliban is as untrustworthy as everyone says.
The president later appeared to backtrack slightly when pressed on the fact that his comments don’t add up to the reality on the ground. One reporter asked if he was “saying equivocally that any American is getting there and past the security barrier and to the planes.”
“No, I thought the question was how could they get through to the airport outside of the airport,” Biden said. “And the answer is, to the best of our knowledge, that the Taliban checkpoints, – they are letting through, people showing American passports.”
“Now, that is a different question when they get into the rush and crowd of all of the folks just outside of the wall near there. That is why we had to — I guess was it yesterday or the day before, we went over the wall and brought … 169 Americans,” Biden continued, adding that it’s a “process” to figure out how to get Americans into the airport.