On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield denied parallels between the situation in Afghanistan and the fall of Saigon by stating that “this is not 1975. This is 2021. We are in a different world. We have planned and we are responding. This is not an unplanned situation that we are in.” Thomas-Greenfield also said, “our friends and allies are not hanging off planes.”
Thomas-Greenfield said, “I think this is not 1975. This is 2021. We are in a different world. We have planned and we are responding. This is not an unplanned situation that we are in. It’s difficult. I am absolutely not denying how difficult the situation is. But we are in a process of trying to get people out and our friends and allies are not hanging off planes. Our friends and allies are getting the support of the U.S. government, and we’re working around the clock to get people out.”
Host Nicolle Wallace then asked, “I just don’t want to misunderstand you. Who do you identify as hanging off the planes at the airport in Kabul?”
Thomas-Greenfield responded, “I don’t know. You said people were hanging off planes, and I did see the one report where there were so — hundreds of people at the airport, and all of those people we want to assist and we recognize that, but what we’re trying to do is provide an orderly path for Afghans and others to leave the country, and we’re working around the clock to do that.”
Thomas-Greenfield added, “[W]e’re getting out planes every hour on the hour, and we will continue to do that until we finish the job.”
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