Rachel Maddow Reduced to Tears in Retelling Harrowing Effort for Afghan Translator to Escape With Family
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was brought to tears as she shared the story of a translator in Afghanistan who desperately tried to escape the country — with the Taliban seizing control.
On Wednesday night, Maddow focused part of her show on Major Tom Schueman of the U.S. Marines, who worked frantically for months to help get his former interpreter — whom he refers to as Zak — out of the country. Schueman has spoken to the media about his public attempts to help get Zak and his family onto a plane, and Maddow flagged several of his Instagram Posts describing Zak’s effort to flee.
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Maddow continued to highlight Schueman’s social media posts, honing in on where he said Zak’s family got “so close” to getting on a plane, but “they didn’t make it.” She became noticeably emotional as she implored her audience to do anything they can and contact anyone they know who can help Afghan refugees attempting to flee.
“This is not how this was supposed to go, right?” Maddow said. “This is not the might of the U.S. Government. This is not the promise we made to the people like Zak. It is not how we were supposed to be bringing him home. Getting this wrong doesn’t mean, you know, ‘oh, they’ll hop the next flight out.’ The window is closing. Getting this wrong means these people will get killed.”
Maddow then brought up Schueman’s latest social media posts showing that the U.S. Air Force located Zak’s family, and they got on an outbound plane from Kabul Airport.
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“I’m not crying, you’re crying,” Maddow said as she dabbed her eye with a handkerchief. “It’s dusty in here, somebody is chopping onions.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.
