Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said Thursday President Joe Biden is “unfit” to be commander in chief after his administration failed to evacuate American citizens from Afghanistan.
“Incompetent. Unhinged. Incoherent. Unfit,” Scott tweeted in relation to Biden’s claim that the United States could not have “gotten out without chaos ensuing”:
“We’re going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Wednesday in a taped interview.
“So, for you, that was always priced into the decision?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Yes,” Biden replied, doubling down that the chaos of stranding Americans was the price of withdrawal.
Biden’s knowledge of a chaotic withdrawal contradicts what he said on July 8, when he was asked if there were “any parallels” between the Afghan “withdrawal and what happened in Vietnam.”
“None whatsoever,” Biden said about the level of chaos in Afghanistan. “Zero.”
On August 16, Scott also questioned Biden’s fitness for president. “After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?” Scott tweeted.
Scott’s criticisms of Biden come as his administration has failed to evacuate American citizens from the chaos in Kabul, Afghanistan. “According to some reports, between 10,000 and 40,000 American citizens are stranded in the country, but the White House claims the number is about 11,000,” Breitbart News reported, adding that as of Sunday, “only approximately 2,900 have been evacuated.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. embassy in Kabul announced a “first come, first serve basis” for flights out of the country for stranded Americans at the airport. The limited space on flights is compounded by the dangers of reaching the rendezvous at the airport, which the U.S. government reiterated Wednesday it cannot guarantee.
Passengers trying to fly out of Kabul International Airport amid the Taliban offensive wait in the terminal in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. As a Taliban offensive squeezes in on the gates of the Afghan capital, there’s increasingly only one way out for those fleeing the war and one way in for the U.S. troops tasked with backing the American diplomats still on the ground: Kabul’s international airport (AP Photo/Tameem Akghar).
“Please be advised that a significant number of individuals have registered and space on these flights is available on a first come, first serve basis,” the notice reads. “You may be required to wait at the airport for a significant amount of time until space is available.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø.