President Joe Biden will not go to Wilmington, Delaware, as originally planned.
The president was scheduled to travel to his home state for the weekend but will stay in Washington, D.C., per a White House official. He will reportedly monitor the ongoing effort to evacuate Americans and allies from Afghanistan.
The president was criticized for planning to leave the White House amid the evacuation effort:
https://twitter.com/thejcoop/status/1428130703611502593
Biden was slated to deliver remarks at the White House on Friday afternoon about the ongoing evacuation of thousands of American citizens and Afghans.
The evacuation comes after the Taliban took over Afghanistan as the U.S. withdrew its forces from the country.
There are roughly 6,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan assisting the evacuation effort. Earlier this week, there were an estimated 15,000 Americans in Afghanistan.
Biden said the U.S. would “stay till we get them all out,” even if that means missing an Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.
In a statement, a White House official said, “On August 19, the U.S. evacuated approximately 3,000 people from Hamid Karzai International Airport on 16 C-17 flights. Nearly 350 U.S. citizens were evacuated. Additional evacuees include family members of U.S. citizens, SIV applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans. We have evacuated approximately 9,000 people since August 14. Since the end of July, we have evacuated approximately 14,000 people.”
“Additionally, in the last 24 hours, the U.S. military facilitated the departure of 11 charter flights. The passengers on those charter flights are not included in the totals above,” the official added.
Biden has defended the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan as he argued that “there is no good time to leave.”
He added, “The basic choice is am I gonna send your sons and your daughters to war in Afghanistan in perpetuity?”
The president also claimed that “the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing I don’t know how that happens.”