Biden ally fumes over Afghan delay
Even Democrats are now slamming the White House as it continues to try to spin its chaotic exit from Afghanistan amid criticism that it has delayed others’ efforts to free those remaining.
On Monday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) trashed the Biden administration for the delay in evacuating remaining Americans and US allies in Afghanistan.
“I have been deeply frustrated, even furious, at our government’s delay & inaction. There will be plenty of time to seek accountability for the inexcusable bureaucratic red tape that stranded so many of our Afghan allies,” the Democrat tweeted.
“I expect the White House & State Department to do everything in their power — absolutely everything — to make this happen,” he wrote. “These are Americans citizens & Afghans who risked everything for our country. We cannot leave them behind.”
Meanwhile, it emerged Tuesday that the State Department will not formally approve the departure of chartered planes from Afghanistan carrying Americans and allies — complicating efforts by private citizens to complete the evacuation of the left-behind, according to an e-mail obtained by Fox News.
In a Sept. 1 e-mail to attorney Eric Montalvo, a former US Marine who has organized a series of evacuation flights, a State Department official acknowledged that any flights taking Afghan refugees to Europe or the Middle East for initial processing “may require some indication from the USG [US government] that we ‘approve’ of this charter flight” in order to land.
The e-mail continued: “DOS [State Department] will not provide an approval, but we will provide a ‘no objection’ to the destination country government via the U.S. Embassy in that country.”
The New York Times reported last week that Montalvo’s law firm had chartered a flight for 300 people from Afghanistan that landed on Aug. 31 in Doha, Qatar. The flight reportedly caused consternation among US diplomatic and military personnel — with Greta Holtz, chargé d’affaires at the Doha embassy, reporting that US Central Command “didn’t want the wing commander to land the plane because it didn’t have ‘status.’ It had already landed.”
On Friday, Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) blamed the State Department for blocking a rescue mission he had sponsored from landing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and told Fox News he had heard that “there are five planes sitting at [Mazar-i-Sharif] with AMCITS [American citizens], SIVs [Special Immigrant Visa holders], and refugees on it . . . but they can’t get clearance to get out because no country is willing to help them.”
Mullin also told Fox he knows of 50 Americans who were unable to get on evacuation flights before the deadline and had to be “run out of Kabul and put in safe houses around Afghanistan.”
“There’s going to be some that’s going to die because of the failure from President Biden, I promise you that,” Mullin told Fox News host Bret Baier. “And when I say that blood is on his hands, that means President Biden’s hands, I mean that with everything in my heart. It’s his fault.”
I have been deeply frustrated, even furious, at our government’s delay & inaction. — Sen. . Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn. , left), on evacuating Americans and US allies from Afghanistan