OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken has admitted what many believed as he did not deny that the administration has to ask the Taliban permission to rescue Americans.
“Someone in our audience might listen to you, Mr. Secretary, and say, ‘Oh, so we have to ask the Taliban for permission for American citizens to leave.’ True or not true?’ CBS News’ Face the Nation host Major Garrett asked the secretary, referring to the agreement that is allegedly in place between the White House and the Taliban.
“They are in control of Kabul. That is the reality,” Blinken said, not denying what Garrett said. “That’s the reality that we have to deal with.”
“How comfortable are you with that, Mr. Secretary?” Garrett said.
“What I am focused on, what we’re all focused on, is getting people out and making sure that we’re doing everything possible to do that,” Blinken said, deflecting from the question.
“And in this case, it is, I think, a requirement of the job to be in contact with the Taliban, which controls Kabul,” he said, The Daily Mail reported.
The comments from Blinken are surprising considering the current administration’s harsh criticism of predecessor Donald Trump’s team for negotiating with the Taliban about terms for withdrawal during his time in office.
Blinken’s comments are in response to questions over why Biden would trust the Taliban to just let Americans gain passage to the Kabul airport for evacuation.
Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan detailed to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that the president has an agreement with the Taliban that they will allow all American citizens access to the evacuation site – including through any checkpoints along their travel to the Hamid Karzai International Airport.
But critics wonder if that is actually happening, especially after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revealed over the weekend that Americans in Kabul are being beaten and assaulted by Taliban fighters.
It was part of a tough round of Sunday interviews for Blinken where the media was not so friendly.
When Fox News anchor Chris Wallace interviewed Blinken he hit him a question about Biden saying in a press conference last week that he had no knowledge of any American citizens having difficulty getting to the Kabul airport.
Wallace mentioned that the U.S. Embassy in Kabul warned U.S. citizens of “potential security threats,” and advised them not to go to the airport in Kabul “unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so.”
“That alert directly contradicts what President Biden said just hours before on Friday,” he said. “My question is, is that because the situation in getting to the airport, even for Americans, is more dangerous than the president indicated, or is it because of a reported new threat from ISIS?”
Blinken agreed that it was an “incredibly volatile situation,” but Wallace kept pressing.
“What the president said just wasn’t true,” the host said. He added that it was “flat wrong” for Biden to say“I have seen no question of our credibility from our allies around the world.”
“Mr. Secretary, does the president not know what’s going on?” he said.
Chris Wallace to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Afghanistan: "Does the president not know what's going on?"
Blinken: "This is an incredibly emotional time for many of us." pic.twitter.com/MmwlZpCN76
— Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com (@stillgray) August 22, 2021
“This is an incredibly emotional time for many of us and including allies and partners who have been shoulder to shoulder with us in Afghanistan for 20 years, at high cost to themselves as well as us…But I’ve got to tell you this, Chris, from the get-go, I spent more time with our NATO partners in Brussels virtually, from before the president made his decision, to when he made his decision, to every time since. We’ve been working very, very closely together,” the secretary said.
