Jennifer Griffin: Biden's remarks on Afghan situation 'couldn't be fact-checked fast enough'

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Jennifer Griffin pushes back on Biden's 'alternate reality' on Afghanistan evacuation

Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin says she couldn't fact-check the president's 'misrepresentations' of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan fast enough during his speech.

Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin said President Joe Biden's remarks on Afghanistan Friday "couldn't be fact-checked fast enough in real-time," telling "America Reports" the president, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the rest of the administration were presenting an "alternate reality."

Griffin and "America Reports" host Sandra Smith noted that Biden claimed there has been "no question of [US] credibility from allies around the world." However, in reality, America's closest friends are harshly criticizing the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan ordered by the president.

"We also thought America was back, but America is withdrawing," said French parliament member Nathalie Loiseau in one example noted by Smith.

United Kingdom MP Tom Tugendhat, a conservative from Kent, also blasted Biden Thursday for his comments about Afghan troops and the catastrophic withdrawal.

"To see [the United States'] commander-in-chief call into question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran, is shameful," Tugendhat, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, said.

"Those who have never fought for the colors they fly should be careful about criticizing those who have," he said.

On "America Reports," Griffin reported that Biden also was factually incorrect when he claimed the U.S. still has "over the horizon" capabilities in Afghanistan.

"I am having a hard time digesting what we heard because I couldn't fact check it fast enough in real-time, because there were so many misrepresentations of what is happening on the ground," she said. 

"To see what is happening with the remnants of al Qaeda, ISIS-K, the Khorosan Group, and even the Taliban, that would have required partners on the ground. What we [have] seen in recent days is those partners on the ground have been abandoned. They are in hiding, they are fearing for their lives. They fled the country."

Griffin said the United States has no allies in Afghanistan anymore, and the chief reason the British and French military has been able to leave the relative security of Hamid Karzai International Airport and extract their citizens trapped behind Taliban barricades is that they still have partners who trust them.

"[The U.S.] doesn't have partners who can help them safely navigate. I don’t see how you can say that with a straight face that they’re going to be over the horizon capabilities to see the terror threat in Afghanistan when this is all said and done," she added.

"The damage done to international relations, international standing, we heard, as you said, from international leaders around the world that NATO allies were gobsmacked at the Senate announcement in withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. And I remember at the time when shortly after the Biden ministration took over and Secretary Blinken went over to tell NATO allies that, it wasn’t a discussion with allies. It was ‘we are leaving’."

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Upon Blinken's blanket declaration, Griffin reported, Italian and French diplomats had to independently make tough and quick decisions on whether to pull their citizens from Kabul.

"There is still no good explanation for why the SIV process was going so slow. That was a State Department run effort that we have talked to and documented the issue for four years, and there has been slow rolling in ridiculous amounts of paperwork in 14 steps," she said. 

Griffin added that the reason for delays in extraction flights by the U.S. military is that there are limited third-party countries still allowing U.S. planes to land.

"This was an alternate reality that was just presented from the White House," she said. "And I just feel very very a great deal of empathy not only for the people of Afghanistan but for our poor Marines and 82nd Airborne who have been sent back into the airport after having been pulled out unceremoniously, having to lift those babies over the wall and see the scenes of the humanitarian disaster that were anticipated."