Joe Biden has been criticised after he played down the desperate attempt of Afghans to flee by clinging on to planes, saying “that was four or five days ago”.
“We’ve all seen the pictures. We’ve seen those hundreds of people packed in a C-17. We’ve seen Afghans falling,” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos said in an interview with the US president.
“That was four days ago, five days ago!” the president cut in.
Hundreds of Afghans were seen clinging to the side of a US plane at Kabul airport on Monday in an attempt to escape.
Three stowaways fell from the engines of a US Air Force plane as it took off and others were run over by taxiing jets.
When asked what he had thought when he saw the chaotic scenes, which took place on Monday, President Biden said: “What I thought was, we have to gain control of this.
“We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did.”
Mr Biden’s comments were met with disbelief.
Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s ambassador to the UN, said it was “shameful.”
“This is such a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans still in Afghanistan.
“He had no plan, he has no urgency, and he won’t take responsibility. #Shameful,” she tweeted.
Liz Cheney, senator for Wyoming echoed her remarks, saying: “A truly ignorant and shameful performance by an American president.”
While Republican senator for Arkansas, Tom Cotton, said: “No way to avoid this chaos? That’s a bald-faced lie. Joe Biden is as dishonest as he is impotent.”
Piers Morgan, Editor at Large of the DailyMail, said: “Biden’s failure to even admit to his catastrophic mistake, when the whole world has watched the disaster unfurl on live TV, is both breathtakingly arrogant & disturbingly delusional.
“He either doesn’t care or is in denial.”
