By Monica Showalter
After Joe Biden, Tony Blinken, and other Biden administration officials blithely assured that the number of Americans left behind in Afghanistan in the chaotic U.S. pullout was minuscule, just a minor rounding error, Congress has come up with a more accurate figure.
According to the Daily Caller:
- As many as 9,000 American citizens were left in Afghanistan when the U.S. military withdrew from the country Aug. 31, according to a report released Thursday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
- In public statements, Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, claimed that only 100-150 Americans remained in Afghanistan and had contacted the U.S. government with a desire to leave. The State Department and Defense Department officials stuck to that number, even as the government publicly admitted that large numbers of American citizens were still leaving the country.
- The report, signed by Foreign Relations ranking member Jim Risch of Idaho, reveals that State Department officials believed that between 10,000 and 15,000 Americans were in Afghanistan as late as Aug. 17. In the next two weeks, only 6,000 Americans were able to escape the country ahead of the Taliban takeover. In testimony in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, however, Blinken claimed that âapproximately 100-150 remained in Afghanistan who still wished to depart.â
