OPINION:
“The evacuation was an extraordinary effort — under the most difficult conditions imaginable,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified on Sept. 13 about the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. “In the end, we completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with 124,000 people evacuated to safety.”
On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Chief Alejandro Mayorkas admitted of the more than 60,000 people evacuated from Kabul and brought to the United States, only 3% were Afghan special immigrant visa holders.
The Biden administration, thinking only of optics, failed to prioritize Americans and our Afghan allies in favor of achieving the largest numbers possible. An unknown number of U.S. citizens and Afghan special immigrant visa holders have been abandoned in war-torn Afghanistan with their lives on the line, while tens of thousands of unvetted Afghans are already in the U.S.
And then there’s the errant drone strike. The day before the U.S. took out what they messaged as a “righteous” attack on an ISIS facilitator near the Kabul airport, Mr. Biden vowed on national television he would hunt down terrorists “to the ends of the Earth, and we will — you will pay the ultimate price.”
The strike silenced many of Mr. Biden’s critics and were the words the American public wanted to hear.
But as we learned last week, no ISIS facilitator was killed. However, 10 civilians were, including seven innocent children and an aid worker carrying water into his car.
In terms of the southern border crisis, Mr. Mayorkas said week, the 15,000 Haitian migrants camping out under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, represented only a “challenge,” and maintained our borders were closed.
“Our borders are not open, and people should not make the dangerous journey,” Mr. Mayorkas said. “If you come to the United States illegally, you will be returned.”
It’s tough talk, but according to Associated Press reporting, not true.
“Haitians have been freed on a ‘very, very large scale’ in recent days, according to one U.S. official, who put the figure into the thousands,” AP reported on Wednesday, backing up other news outlets, which estimated 75% to 90% of those crossing the border are given free passage into the United States. Reports are another 20,000 Haitians are waiting in Colombia reading to make the trek into the U.S. once the path is clear.
Sense a pattern here? The Biden administration – at every turn – is lying, deceiving, and gaslighting the American people into believing a false reality.
Yet, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Mr. Biden’s closest advisers are some of the most skilled in subterfuge.
It was Mr. Blinken, who under the Obama administration worked closely with Ben Rhodes and now Secretary of State spokesman Ned Price, to manufacture a dishonest narrative about the diplomacy surrounding the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal to help win public support.
Current Pentagon press secretary John Kirby also played a role. Under then-President Obama, he served as the State Department’s press secretary and actively downplayed the administration’s $400 million cash payment to Iran. In 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported the payment was delivered to the Iranians after the departure of American prisoners from Tehran. Mr. Kirby was adamant it wasn’t a ransom payment but meant to settle a dispute over military equipment predating Iran’s Islamic revolution. Yeah, right.
But it’s not only Mr. Blinken, Mr. Price, and Mr. Kirby who have a master’s in spin.
Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, helped craft the bogus Russia-collusion narrative on behalf of his then-boss Hillary Clinton against former President Donald Trump in 2016.
Mr. Sullivan pushed the conspiracy theory there was a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.
“This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow,” Mr. Sullivan claimed at the time. “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia. … This line of communication may help explain Trump’s bizarre adoration of Vladimir Putin.”
Mr. Sullivan added: “We can only assume that federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia as part of their existing probe into Russia’s meddling in our elections.”
We know now, it’s all untrue. But it did help lead to a special counsel investigation into Mr. Trump while in office and set the grounds for his first impeachment.
And let’s not forget Susan Rice, who now heads Mr. Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, and her role in Benghazi — obfuscating the planned terrorist attack as something that stemmed from public protests about a movie made in the U.S. that mocked Islam. Or her participation in spreading the false Russia-collusion narrative by “unmasking” incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and other Trump officials.
Mr. Mayorkas, for his part, is just lucky to have a job. While he served at DHS under the Obama administration, an IG report accused him of playing favorites in handing out visas and green cards. The IG report specifically focused on allegations of special treatment given to friends of Democrats Harry Reid and Terry McAuliffe.
The Biden administration is full of lying swamp monsters who will do and say anything to preserve their positions of power. Believe your eyes, not the spin.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at the Washington Times.
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