State Department Spox Says Biden Administration Makes No ‘Categorical Judgment’ About Terrorists in Taliban Cabinet

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday the Biden administration would make no “judgments just yet” about Afghanistan’s new Taliban regime.

He made the comment in response to a question from NBC’s Andrea Mitchell at a daily press briefing. “What about what we’ve seen on the streets of Kabul, in other places, the lashings, the beatings of people, to say nothing of the appointment of an all-male, non-inclusive cabinet, with at least two Haqqani members with bounties on their head from this State Department?” Mitchell asked.

“So, Andrea, as I said before, we are not going to make sweeping, categorical judgments just yet,” Price replied.

The remarks come as part of a broader offensive by the Biden administration to take an early welcoming posture toward the Taliban, despite critics maintaining that it is unwarranted. A similar exchange played out at the White House on Thursday, where Fox News’ Peter Doocy cited a White House statement describing the Taliban as “business-like and professional” for allowing a plane filled with American passengers to leave the country.

“Their interior minister has an FBI ‘wanted’ poster,” Doocy said in reference to Sirajuddin Haqqani, who the Taliban announced this week as the country’s interim interior minister overseeing law enforcement.  “He has a $10 million bounty on his head. What’s the business?”

“We are here to celebrate the return of American citizens who wanted to leave Afghanistan, of legal permanent residents, of Afghans who fought by our side — to Qatar, successfully, on a Qatari Airlines flight,” Psaki replied. “And in order to get those people out, we had to work with some members of the Taliban.”

At least four more terrorists previously held at Guantanamo Bay but released in 2014 as part of a prisoner swap for former Army Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl were also named this week as officials in the new Taliban government. The group includes Abdul Haq Wasiq, the new director of intelligence; Noorullah Noori, the acting minister of borders and tribal affairs; Khairullah Khairkhah, the acting minister of information and culture; and Mohammad Fazl, the deputy defense minister.

Watch above via the State Department.

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