Organizers of private chartered flights to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies out of Afghanistan say Team Biden is blocking their efforts.
Two Americans separately involved in the evacuation told Fox News that the State Department is the sole entity preventing their charter flights from leaving Afghanistan.
"This is zero place to be negotiating with American lives. Those are our people standing on the tarmac and all it takes is a f****ing phone call," one of the individuals told Fox News. "If one life is lost as a result of this, the blood is on the White House's hands. The blood is on their hands."
"It is not the Taliban that is holding this up – as much as it sickens me to say that – it is the United States government."
Fox News said it did not name the individuals to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing rescue efforts.
Rick Clay, an organizer for chartered flights from the Mazar-i-Sharif airport in northern Afghanistan, told Steve Bannon's War RoomTeam Biden is preventing U.S. planes from leaving the Afghan airports.
Clay told Fox News that his organization is "having problems getting permission" from the Biden State Department "to land on the return flight" from Afghanistan in a neighboring country.
The State Department "is not allowing any private charters carrying refugees [to] land anywhere" in nearby countries if they are coming out of Afghanistan and is making different "excuses" as to why, such as pointing to the lack of air traffic controllers and radar issues, Clay told Fox News. The two other individuals separately involved in private evacuation efforts confirmed Clay's account.
"This makes no sense, Clay said. "We still have Americans we can get out."
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson told Fox News in a statement that it is "hard to believe that the U.S. government would deny American citizens and Afghan allies who helped save American lives the ability to evacuate Afghanistan."
"However, what we've been hearing from people actually involved in evacuation is completely different from the administration's rosy spin," the senator said, adding that when he hears Joe Biden "declare this debacle an ‘extraordinary success’ it not only shows he’s detached from reality, it also calls into question everything this administration is telling the American people."
Free Press International
