The White House defended leaving over 400 Americans behind in Afghanistan, arguing Tuesday that government officials did not use tracking software to monitor them.
The State Department acknowledged in a statement released Monday that “fewer than a dozen” Americans were still trying to leave Afghanistan, nearly four months after the Taliban seized control of Kabul. The statement also revealed the Biden administration had left 490 Americans behind in Afghanistan — even while Biden claimed at the time that only about 100-200 Americans remained when American troops left the country.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the Biden administration’s record on the issue during the daily briefing, arguing that they “delivered on their word on” the president’s commitment to get Americans out of the country.
When Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked why the administration did not have accurate numbers of Americans left behind, Psaki said it was because the government was not tracking Americans overseas.
“I would just reiterate. The United States does not track or put a tracker on American citizens traveling overseas,” she said, and added, “That would be quite a Fox News story, wouldn’t it be, if we did that? We don’t do that.”
Psaki said the State Department continued to offer a “range of services” to help Americans still in Afghanistan to evacuate.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.