Jen Psaki Denies White House Responsible for Americans Left in Afghanistan: ‘We Don’t Put Trackers on Americans Traveling Overseas’

Jen Psaki sparred with Fox News’ Peter Doocy on Tuesday over Americans who were still in Afghanistan months after the United States military departed.

“Why is it that there are still Americans stranded in Afghanistan?” Doocy asked the daily White House press briefing.

“Well, let me just reiterate something [Secretary of State] Tony Blinken said back in August,” Psaki replied. “if Americans in Afghanistan wanted to leave whether it was three weeks from now, two months from now — back in August — we would help them get out.”

Psaki said 479 American citizens and visa-holders had left the country subsequent to the military’s Aug. 30 departure. She also said the administration took credit for the departures, though she failed to note that the State Department’s eagerness to claim credit for evacuees led to controversy in some cases. That included a September incident in which the State Department boasted it “worked to facilitate” passage for one American family evacuated by Army veteran Cory Mills. The department added that it provided “embassy officials” who “greeted the Americans once they had crossed the border.”

Doocy noted that 479 was “a lot higher than the 100 to 200” Americans that President Joe Biden said at the end of August were left in Afghanistan. Disregarding Doocy’s point, Psaki emphasized it was 479 Americans the administration had “helped depart.”

Following up, Doocy asked, “Is this something as there are now at least about a dozen who want to leave right now, is this something the president works on every day?”

Psaki pounced on the opportunity to take a shot at Fox News. “Certainly he receives regular updates from his team,” she replied. “I would just reiterate that the United States does not track or put a tracker on American citizens traveling overseas, whether they’re in Afghanistan or any country around the world. That would be quite a Fox News story, wouldn’t it be, if we did that, wouldn’t [it]? We don’t do that. But we do provide a range of services, even when we don’t have a presence in a country.”

Watch above via Fox News.