There is a lot we still do not know about Americans stranded in Afghanistan.

President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and press secretary Jen Psaki now all suffer from a credibility gap born of obfuscation over this Afghan catastrophe.

Two Sundays back, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told CNN there were "around 100" Americans left in Afghanistan. On Thursday, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said "hundreds"-plural-are still there.

Then, on Monday, we learned that there are thousands of green card holders there. 

What we are looking at is what I have labeled "America Held Hostage 2.0." On Wednesday last week, Jen Psaki said there were a "handful" of Americans still in Afghanistan.

A "handful."

That's astonishing indifference to the worries of families and friends across the country. Americans do not come in "handfuls." They come in ones-and each one matters. One American abandoned is a crisis.

We celebrate every American who escapes, but we cannot forget and dare not accept the minimization of Americans left behind.

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Two weeks after the Biden administration abandoned thousands of Americans in Afghanistan, both citizens and legal permanent residents, President Biden and his team have tried mightily to change the subject. Two days after this disgraceful collapse, the White House tried to reset focus on its domestic policies even while refusing to account for all those left behind. 

Now Joe Biden has resorted to an unconstitutional imposition of vaccine mandates on employers as a distraction from his appalling conduct on Afghanistan. Even while offering strangely accommodating language to the Taliban, Biden used his pulpit to bully Americans who still do not feel comfortable with vaccines. 

This exercise in phony leadership has succeeded in its diversion when it comes to the national media. News organizations have all but forgotten the Americans left behind while chasing the White House’s latest shiny object in the mandate. The media have shamefully become willing partners in Biden’s disgrace rather than an instrument of accountability, and Americans will not soon forget it.

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It’s not surprising that Joe Biden wants to “turn the page” on his incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan and the abandonment of US citizens and our allies there. Almost as unsurprising is the media’s craven effort to help him.

Even as Americans remain hostage in Afghanistan and the Taliban flaunts the military equipment we left behind, the news has shifted to other domestic stories. It’s inexplicable—unless the media has seen the disastrous erosion in Joe Biden’s poll numbers and realizes the damage won’t stop until the story goes away.

Their silence is a scandal. 

But sadly, we’ve grown used to seeing the media try to influence public opinion in a way that benefits their chosen candidates. Let’s hope that this time, Americans see through the manipulation. So long as America is being humiliated by a group of Taliban savages and our fellow citizens are captives, we deserve the full story. We should demand that the media give it to us.

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Golden State voters are now on the cusp deciding the fate of the embattled and scandal-ridden Governor Newsom.
 
It would be hard to overstate how important this special election is for California—and, indeed, for the nation.
 
In the face of the Governor's mismanagement and flagrant hypocrisy—remember the French laundry? Will California voters give him a vote of confidence—and choose to stick with him for the remainder of his term?
 
The crisis of homelessness is nowhere worse than here in California—and Newsom does nothing.
 
The state consistently makes the top of the list as the worst state in the nation to do business—and Newsom does nothing.
 
California is in the grip of a long-unfolding triumph of special interests and wealthy elites—and Newsom does nothing.
 
This recall vote has given Golden State voters a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a dramatic shift.
 
I hope you’ve voted “yes” already on the recall. If you haven’t voted, please find your vote and do so. Don’t miss this opportunity. 

Encourage your friends. Encourage your family.
 
Get out there and vote … vote “Yes” on the recall.

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Almost fifty years after Roe v. Wade, abortion remains the moral issue in American public discourse and politics.

There are very few profiles in courage in American politics—but a particularly important profile in moral collapse now resides in the White House, that would be President Joe Biden.

Over the years, he has made clear—time and again—that he personally believes life begins at conception.

That is, until Friday, September 3, when, in condemning the Texas law prohibiting abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, Biden said: “I respect those who believe that life begins at conception—I respect that. Don’t agree, but I respect that.”

Those of us who have been watching closely knew this moment had to come. It was President Biden’s final act of surrender to the absolute politics of radical abortion.

So much for courage and conviction.

It’s a sad story. 

But the story of Joe Biden raises important questions we all must answer: How will we define when human life begins? And: Will we stand upon that conviction, no matter the cost?

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Ever since the last airplane left the airport in Kabul, the White House has tried to change the subject from Afghanistan. With Americans, green-card holders, and Afghan allies abandoned by Joe Biden and trapped behind Taliban lines, the administration has labored to shift attention to anything else. Joe Biden scolded Texas over its abortion law, the White House offered updates on the infrastructure debate, and the media has dutifully stopped reporting on the hundreds or thousands still needing rescue.

That hasn’t fooled most Americans who are disgusted by Biden’s actions, and it’s not even convincing fellow Democrats. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a progressive Democrat, declared himself “furious” over Biden’s delay and inaction in helping Americans get out of Afghanistan. “We cannot leave them behind,” Blumenthal declared at a moment when the White House is trying to pretend they don’t exist.

Blumenthal’s surprising rebuke sets a red line for Biden. No one will “move past” his despicable abandonment of our citizens and allies until they all get out. Perhaps national media outlets should demonstrate as much fortitude as Blumenthal. 

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Sirhan Sirhan, the man who brutally murdered Robert Kennedy has been granted parole. But in all the media coverage of this shocking outcome there’s one topic that has remained largely unmentioned: the killer’s motive. We live in a world where every high profile killer immediately has mass media looking for indicators of ideological motivations, especially conservative ones. But Sirhan was a Palestinian extremist who saw his brother killed by a Jordanian vehicle in a battle with the Israelis. He killed RFK because he hated JFK, and he hated JFK because JFK supported Israel. NBC news called Sirhan “a Christian-born Jordanian”, but that’s pretty misleading. Yes, he was born to a Christian family but later he became an apostate from Christianity and joined a New Age group.

The story of the murder of the Kennedy brothers has been ill-served by a media which keeps forgetting to tell us that the first was murdered by a Communist and the second by a Palestinian terrorist.

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Recently, Senator Ben Sasse said that America, after a proper vetting process should grant refugee status to the roughly 70 thousand Afghanis who stepped up and believed our promises and answered our call to fight alongside the US against the Taliban.

If we leave our friends cowering in their homes waiting for Taliban rape and death squads to cut off their heads because they allied with us, we are without honor. Critics point to the electoral implications of this, but do we really think that 70 thousand refugees are going to overwhelm our political system? The Cubans, who were also betrayed by feckless American policy certainly didn’t. But either way, whatever the political cost, it pales in significance next to the cost of lost honor and a message to the freedom fighters of the world – that practically screams “Don't count on us!”

Refusing genuine refugees from Biden’s debacle is both a cruel and a short-sighted policy of abandoning friends and allies. Bottom line: Vett 'em and let 'em. That's the only decent policy.

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As people across the United States watch the debacle in Afghanistan, there's virtually unanimous agreement on two points. First, no American who wants to come home should be left behind. Second, we must ensure the safety of the Afghans who helped us. But given the frenzied haste with which the Biden administration is flying tens of thousands of Afghans into the country, hard questions are in order. How carefully are these new arrivals being vetted? 

It's been reported that some of the new arrivals have turned up on terror watch lists. One man flown into America, reportedly works for ISIS. 

It would be a tragedy if our commitment to the safety of our Afghan friends were exploited by terrorists and enabled by the incompetence of our own government. What we've seen of the Biden administration's ineptitude or worse, both in Afghanistan and on our Southern border hardly inspires confidence. 

It's time for some answers on exactly who's coming here. America's security depends on it. 

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President Biden's refusal to commit to staying in Afghanistan for as long as it takes to rescue Americans, our NATO allies, and Afghans eligible for Special Immigrant Visas and Priority 2 Visas is a shameful collapse of national purpose and deeply scarring moment of American weakness. 

While the death toll of that awful day on 9/11 was higher, at least it was higher as of today, the cut and run from Afghanistan is actually a greater crisis. 

For here, the president is intentionally abandoning thousands of Americans to their fate at the hands of a terrorist regime and splinter groups even more violent. It is worse than a shock, worse than an embarrassment. It's a collapse of the American ideal that we would never give up on an American, never leave an American behind. And shameful conduct by the White House will never not be associated with President Biden, Vice President Harris, Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin. Indeed, everyone in the executive branch. It marks them forever as cowards.

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