Gutfeld: Everyone agrees the withdrawal in Afghanistan was horrifying
'The Five' discuss the chaotic withdrawal, evacuation from the troubled Middle East nation
Democrats and liberals have a penchant for ignoring the empirical facts of various crises and instead inventing – rather than simply alluding to – a "silver lining" to absolve them of any responsibility and deflect from the truth, "The Five" host Will Cain said Tuesday.
With the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan that left 13 military servicemembers dead and untold numbers of American citizens stranded with a terrorist regime running the country, President Joe Biden and his administration sought to underline the fact the U.S. was leaving the country after a 20-year war:
"It's easy to second-guess but let's just be clear, America was in this war for 20 years and I think any effort to unwind and any effort to bring our troops out – any effort to end our military stands in Afghanistan – was going to be filled with heartbreaking scenes and difficulties, I think the Biden administration managed that as well as it could be managed under the circumstances we were forced into," said Ron Klain, the president's longtime confidant and chief of staff in a clip played on "The Five."
Host Greg Gutfeld called the pattern from the White House a "bait-and-switch" because "nobody is debating the decision to leave."
"We left so much behind," Cain responded to Gutfeld. "It's interesting that they qualify this as a success by ignoring what we left behind -- what they're looking at is the 100,000 we evacuated, ignoring the 1,000, 2,000, 300 - or whatever number."
"That has all the hope of your doctor walking in and telling you you are 90% cancer-free," Cain added. "That's not an encouraging statement coming from your doctor."
Cain said the same Democrats speaking like that about Afghanistan were also the ones claiming the hundreds of left-wing riots in cities like Philadelphia, Portland, New York, Chicago and Minneapolis in 2020 were "mostly peaceful" despite the facts.
"[These are] the people with the same mindset that said 'here's a mostly peaceful riot' – they have a way not of seeing the silver lining, but of creating the silver lining. So I would suggest you ignore them. Listen to the anonymous voices in their administration, listen to the Obama administration officials throwing them under the bus [in regard to Afghanistan]," he argued.
"Listen to our vets who say our standard is ‘leave no man behind.' Don't act like this is a catastrophe you actually stepped into on the sidewalk. You created this catastrophe, and it is your burden and obligation to ensure that no American is left behind. No spinning, no lying, no creating a pseudo-reality other that."
Later in the segment, host Geraldo Rivera gave an update on a young Afghan interpreter and his family who had worked with the correspondent-at-large years ago when he was routinely reporting from the war-torn country.
He shared photos of Akbar the interpreter, alongside his crew, including the correspondent's brother, producer Craig Rivera.
Geraldo reported the man and his family were initially not able to evacuate successfully, but Fox News management worked to get them safely out of the country.
"He stayed with us the entire time, 12 assignments in Afghanistan – wonderful guy. And we were so worried about getting them out, but Fox News did an excellent job under Jay Wallace's leadership," Rivera said, referring to the president and executive editor of Fox News Media.
"It's news when things go badly. The fact that this went right, and we got this dear friend out, and my family and I will sponsor him here in the United States, and we look forward to his arrival."
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