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Kayleigh McEnany joins chorus of outrage as Jen Psaki stops 'promised' daily briefings

The White House silence, which has been slammed widely, led to speculation that senior officials are hiding in a 'bunker’ while Kabul burns

President Joe Biden did not make any public appearances on Thursday, August 19, after a sit-down with ABC News's George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday night, August 18, where he infamously claimed the Afghan crisis was unavoidable​. However, as per his schedule, he held a closed-door Afghanistan briefing.

Not just the commander-in-chief, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki also failed to do daily briefings amid the chaos. The White House silence, which has been slammed widely, led to speculation that senior officials are hiding in 'bunker’ while Kabul burns.

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Kayleigh McEnany, who was White House spokesperson from April 2020 to January 2021 during the Donald Trump administration, went on to rip Psaki over shying away from her responsibilities on Aug 19. The ‘Outnumbered’ co-host said, “Jen Psaki promised us a daily White House press briefing. There isn't one today. There wasn't one Monday. When the going gets tough, the daily press briefing that she promised goes out the window.”

McEnany also criticized Pentagon’s Press Secretary John Kirby for his ignorance. Kirby had been asked on Aug 18 how many US citizens were trapped in Afghanistan, to which he replied, “I don't know how many Americans are in Afghanistan. That's a question put to the State Department, not the Department of Defense. We don't have that kind of granularity.”

The 33-year-old conservative political commentator slammed him saying, “When you are a press secretary at any entity, you anticipate whatever the questions will be. One of the most obvious questions is how many Americans are on the ground. He didn't take up the time to pick up the phone and call Secretary of State Antony Blinken and get that number for us when you are the one place we are getting information from today, when there are nearly 15,000 American hostages on the ground?"

"And the Pentagon spokesperson could not pick up the phone and Jen Psaki won't go to the podium to give us these very basic answers we deserve,” she added.

It has been reported that Biden has only managed to give nine sit-down interviews in his first seven months in office. His number is far less than his immediate predecessors, Trump and Barack Obama, who granted 50 interviews and 113 interviews, respectively during their initial months in office.

Meanwhile, people on the Internet were also not happy with the White House silence over the Afghan chaos. A user tweeted, “The poor handling of the Afghan withdrawal ought to teach/re-teach us many things. One of those things is the importance of comms in crisis management and major moves. Team Biden and especially the White House itself failed big time on this. Hopefully they will take a hard look.”

Heather Barr, human rights activist, wrote, “It's urgent that Biden takes a more nuanced and helpful approach to Afghanistan. The US needs to join others in resolving evacuation crisis, pressuring Taliban on rights, & ensuring aid reaches Afghans in desperate need/essential services. But his attitude seems to be *&^# them.” “With each passing day, the odds increase that Biden will not political recovery from the Afghan crisis,” a tweet added.

However, there were some on Twitter who took a dig at McEnany too. A critic tweeted, “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black. Kaleigh needs pay back her salary for months of no briefings.” The second one stated, “Kayleigh remembers a different version of herself as Press Secretary.” “You are so right Kayleigh it should be everyday and if she doesn't have anything favorable to say By god just do like you would LIE,” the third user added.