CBS Reporter Calls Out State Dept. Spox Spin on Afghanistan Pullout: ‘No Way You Can Sit There’ and Tell the Afghan People the ‘US is With Them’

CBS News correspondent Christina Ruffini and State Department spokesperson Ned Price sparred amid the news on Thursday that the United States is sending 3,000 troops to Afghanistan to help evacuate U.S. Embassy personnel and other Americans from that country.

Additionally, the United States will send 3,500 troops to Kuwait to be on standby.

These developments come as the Taliban has taken over 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals amid the United States withdrawing its troops from the country by Aug. 31 after almost 20 years of war there following 9/11.

“I respect you and we all know you have a job to do,” said Ruffini. “But there is no way you can sit there and say that the people of Afghanistan watching the Taliban take over provinces, watching their country crumble are now going to watch American diplomats get on military planes and leave the country that that sends a signal that the U.S. is with them in the long haul diplomatically.”

“Look at what we’ve been doing. Look at the investment we have made in Afghanistan. Look at the investments … however you measure it,” replied Price. “Whether it is humanitarian. Whether it’s political. Whether it’s diplomatic. Whether it is the security investments that we have made.”

Price added that today’s news is about “one thing only: it’s about the priority this president attaches to the safety and security of Americans who serve in this government … that is not a priority we are willing to miss.”

Watch above, via CSPAN.