McEnany: Biden ‘misleading’ on Afghanistan collapse, Americans deserve answers
‘Outnumbered’ co-host Kayleigh McEnany blasts the Biden administration for not answering questions from the press about the Afghanistan collapse.
"Outnumbered" co-host Kayleigh McEnany ripped the Biden administration for its lack of transparency throughout the ordeal in Afghanistan, criticizing Press Secretary Jen Psaki specifically for not holding daily briefings.
"Jen Psaki promised us a daily White House press briefing," McEnany said Thursday. "There isn't one today. There wasn't one Monday. When the going gets tough, the daily press briefing that she promised goes out the window."
What Americans were left with, McEnany noted, was a Pentagon press briefing. And still, she said, Press Secretary John Kirby couldn't answer some of the most pressing questions. When asked how many American citizens were trapped in Afghanistan, Kirby admitted, "I don't know."
"And I don't know how many Americans are in Afghanistan," he said Wednesday. "That's a question put to the State Department, not the Department of Defense. We don't have that kind of granularity."
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His "best guess," Kirby said Wednesday, is there is between 5,000 and 10,000 Americans near Kabul.
McEnany called Kirby's referral a dereliction of duty.
"When you are a press secretary at any entity, you anticipate whatever the questions will be," McEnany said. "One of the most obvious questions is how many Americans are on the ground. He didn't take up the time to pick up the phone and call Secretary of State Antony Blinken and get that number for us when you are the one place we are getting information from today, when there are nearly 15,000 American hostages on the ground?"
"And the Pentagon spokesperson could not pick up the phone and Jen Psaki won't go to the podium to give us these very basic answers we deserve," she continued.
Biden has only granted nine sit-down interviews in his first seven months in office, a number far below that of his predecessors Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, who held 50 interviews and 113 interviews, respectively, at this time in their presidency.
Biden's interview this week with ABC's George Stephanopoulos was panned as dismissive about the tragedy in Afghanistan, such as the moment he knocked on wood and said "no one's being killed right now."
"But, look – but no one's being killed right now, God forgive me if I'm wrong about that, but no one's being killed right now," Biden said.
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Biden was also knocked for claiming his advisers never told him it would be wise to keep some U.S. forces on the ground, despite evidence to the contrary.