Fox News Hammers Psaki for Playing Semantics with ‘Stranded’ Americans

As America witnessed on Monday, the Biden White House was determined to play ludicrous games with rhetoric and attempt to gaslight the American people who already didn’t trust them. The epitome of this display was featured in the White House press briefing where Press Secretary Jen Psaki got into a spat with Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy over whether or not there were Americans “stranded” in Afghanistan. This ridiculousness was the subject of needed criticism on the network’s Special Report.

During Doocy’s report, he jokingly noted that “Words matter, and there is one this White House doesn’t want in the headlines about the Afghanistan drawdown.” He then played this soundbite from their testy exchange:

DOOCY: Does the president have a sense that most of the criticism is not of leading Afghanistan, it’s the way that he has ordered it to happen? By pulling the troops before getting these Americans who are now stranded. Does he have a sense of that?

PRESS SEC. JEN PSAKI: First of all, I think it’s irresponsible to say Americans are stranded there are not.

DOOCY: There are no Americans stranded, is the White House’s official position on what’s happening in Afghanistan?

PSAKI: I’m just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan.

“And she argues none of these Americans who are sheltering in place, hiding from ISIS are stranded because they have been getting texts and emails from the U.S. government,” he chided. And to that, Anchor Bret Baier noted that “the texts and emails don’t come with an armored vehicle to get them to the airport.”

And the threat was real. As Doocy mentioned, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had taken question before Psaki and warned that ISIS was looking to attack the airport. “So, there are Americans who cannot go to the airport because it’s too dangerous, but they’re not stranded,” he examined her argument. To which, Baier quipped that Doocy was playing “semantics there.”

A short time later, during their panel discussion, Fox News Talk host Guy Benson said he’d “been mystified repeatedly on the policy and the messaging choices of this administration on this issue and the withdrawal in particular.”

Adding: “I was particularly mystified by her choice, the White House Press Secretary’s decision that she made to pick a fight on parsing the word “stranded” involving thousands of Americans and allies who are definitionally stranded right now.”

After noting that Doocy didn’t say Americans were “abandoned,” Benson called out how the administration had not been in touch with reality on the subject of Afghanistan. “It goes back to the point that Chris Wallace was hammering on that the canyon between the rhetoric of the administration and the reality on the ground and they stepped in it again today.”

The transcript is below, click “expand” to read:

Fox News Channel’s Special Report
August 23, 2021
6:08:14 p.m. Eastern

(…)

PETER DOOCY: Words matter, and there is one this White House doesn’t want in the headlines about the Afghanistan drawdown.

Does the president have a sense that most of the criticism is not of leading Afghanistan, it’s the way that he has ordered it to happen? By pulling the troops before getting these Americans who are now stranded. Does he have a sense of that?

PRESS SEC. JEN PSAKI: First of all, I think it’s irresponsible to say Americans are stranded there are not.

DOOCY: There are no Americans stranded, is the White House’s official position on what’s happening in Afghanistan?

PSAKI: I’m just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan.

[Cuts back to live]

DOOCY: And she argues none of these Americans who are sheltering in place, hiding from ISIS are stranded because they have been getting texts and emails from the U.S. government.

President Biden had two on-camera events today. One about COVID, one celebrating the WBNA champion Seattle Storm, not one word about Afghanistan. Bret?

BRET BAIER: And Peter, the texts and emails don’t come with an armored vehicle to get them to the airport.

DOOCY: Right. And at the same time, a few minutes before Jen Psaki spoke, Jake Sullivan was up there saying there is a serious threat from ISIS at the airport. So, there are Americans who cannot go to the airport because it’s too dangerous, but they’re not stranded?

BAIER: Yeah. Semantics there.

(…)

6:52:40 p.m. Eastern

BAIER: And he thought now, Guy, is that this decision has to be made pretty quickly if it is going to be a deadline of August 31st and the next 24 hours, they need to come up with, yes, that is or no, that isn’t. The Taliban says that’s a red line for them why we, as the greatest military in the world care about that, I don’t know. Your thoughts?

GUY BENSON: Not only care about it, it seems like in some ways we are paralyzed or beholden to it, which is sort of a shocking turn of events. Now you’re right, that decision has to be made very soon. Part of the problem here, Bret, it seems like many decisions involving this withdrawal should have been made weeks or months sooner than they actually were.

And going back to that clip of Jen Psaki today in that exchange with Peter Doocy, I have been mystified repeatedly on the policy and the messaging choices of this administration on this issue and the withdrawal in particular. I was particularly mystified by her choice, the White House Press Secretary’s decision that she made to pick a fight on parsing the word “stranded” involving thousands of Americans and allies who are definitionally stranded right now.

They didn’t say “abandoned.” Peter didn’t use that word; abandoned forever. Right now, they’re stranded. There is example after example pouring in from people, Americans and otherwise who feel and are stranded. And this is once again it going — it goes back to the point that Chris Wallace was hammering on that the canyon between the rhetoric of the administration and the reality on the ground and they stepped in it again today.

(…)