CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox News Correspondents Fact-Check Biden on Afghanistan Evacuations: ‘The Reality and the Rhetoric Are Miles Apart’

Correspondents from CNN, ABC, and Fox News fact-checked claims by President Joe Biden after his Friday press conference on Afghanistan.

The president was asked by one reporter whether he will sign off on sending troops into Kabul to “evacuate Americans who haven’t been able to get to the airport safely.”

“We have no indication that they haven’t been able to get in Kabul through the airport. We’ve made an agreement with the Taliban thus far. They’ve allowed them to go through. It’s in their interest for them to go through, so we know of no circumstance where American citizens carrying American passports are trying to get through to the airport. But we will do whatever needs to be done to see to it they get to the airport,” Biden responded.

CNN’s Victor Blackwell asked chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward — still on the ground in Kabul — if she has seen any difficulty for Americans trying to get into the airport

“Well, we had difficulty getting into the airport,” Ward said. “It’s very difficult. It’s not a simple process at all. And you might remember I did a live shot a couple of days ago outside the airport. I was talking to people with green cards, people who had all their SIV applications accepted, their visa, and they couldn’t get close.”

“Anyone who says that any American can get in here is, you know — yeah, I mean, technically, it’s possible, but it’s extremely difficult and it is dangerous.”

Over on ABC News, David Muir spoke with senior foreign correspondent Ian Pannell — also reporting from Kabul — to similarly ask about the president’s comments on Americans getting to the airport.

“The president said he has no intelligence that Americans have been unable to get there. The question obviously, does that square with reporting on the ground?” Muir asked.

“I mean, just totally not,” Pannell responded.

He said there have, in fact, been Americans dealing with this very problem, telling Muir “they were beaten by the Taliban with the rubber fan belt from a vehicle.”

“It just seems the reality and the rhetoric are miles apart. I’m not quite sure what advice the president’s receiving, but the truth on the ground is that these people who are in fear of their lives can’t get through,” Pannell added.

On NBC News, chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel — currently reporting from Doha, Qatar — remarked, “President Biden just described a very orderly process, an American airlift that is going efficiently, that there’s a negotiation with the Taliban, that it may be difficult but Afghans can get to the airport and then get on these flights and then come to places like Doha.”

“It is far more chaotic than that.”

He talked about the Taliban checkpoints around Kabul and went through the lengths people need to go through so they can be processed and evacuated. “There is an enormous challenge right now of figuring out who these people are, where to put them, how to process them, and how to get even more into the process.”

And on Fox News, national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reacted by saying, “I’m having a hard time digesting what we heard, because I couldn’t fact-check it fast enough in real time.”

“There were so many misrepresentations of what is happening on the ground,” she said.

“There is still no good explanation for why the SIV process was going so slowly. That was a State Department-run effort. We have talked to, we have documented the SIV issue for four years, and there has been slow-rolling and ridiculous amounts of paperwork and 14 steps only in the last 24 hours,” Griffin continued.

She even went so far as to say “this is an alternate reality that was just presented from the White House.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.