Biden State Department Left 600 of Its Own Journalists Behind in Afghanistan

They lied.
The Biden administration stranded hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans in Afghanistan as they fled the country earlier this week.

And now there are reports that Joe Biden and Secretary of State Tony Blinken stranded 600 State Department journalists and family members behind in Afghanistan.

They abandoned the reporters and their families when they left the country, after promising to bring them out.

The Washington Post reported:

The administration was warned early and often about the 600 or so employees, contractors and family members who worked for U.S.-sponsored news organizations under the umbrella of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, a federal agency funded by Congress. They include journalists working for the Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio LIberty (RFE/RL) who have worked in Afghanistan for years — at great personal risk. The Taliban has killed four RFE/FL journalists since 2016 through suicide bomb attacks, and the company’s journalists routinely receive death threats from the extremists.

Now, the leaders of these organizations say the State Department promised to get their vulnerable people out of the country before the Aug. 31 troop withdrawal deadline, only to later renege on that promise amid the chaos and confusion at the Kabul airport. They describe a harrowing ordeal for these Afghans, who were repeatedly turned away by our own troops at the airport gates and whose personal information was handed over to the same Taliban fighters they are fleeing from.

Rep. Michael McCaul released this statement following this report today.

McCaul: “Disgraceful” State Dept. Left Hundreds of USAGM Journalists in Afghanistan
Press Release 08.31.21

Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul has released the following statement on the news that more than 500 journalists and their families who were employed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) were abandoned by the State Department in Afghanistan. Only 50 USAGM staffers were evacuated, thanks to efforts by our allies – not the United States government.

“It is absolutely disgraceful the U.S. State Department claimed they evacuated their local employees when in reality they abandoned hundreds of USAGM journalists and their families. Some of these journalists were given express assurances by the Biden Administration that they would be treated as locally employed staff – but were not. My office was working with one of these journalists and tried for two weeks to get attention brought to his case so he, his wife, and his infant child could be saved – but our pleas were ignored. I am calling on the president and the State Department to rapidly find ways to get these people to safety and away from the threats President Biden and Secretary Blinken enabled.”

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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