Psaki ‘out of office’ as Biden remains silent on Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

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Jen Psaki ‘out of office’ as Biden remains silent on Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
White House press secretary Jen Psaki is taking a break from her duties as controversy surrounds the silence of President Joe Biden, who is on vacation as the Taliban quickly take control of Afghanistan.

Fox News sent questions to Psaki’s White House email address on Sunday morning and received an automatic response. Hours later, on Sunday evening, Fox News attempted to reach the White House spokeswoman again. The same automatic response, indicating that the White House voice would not be available for next week, was sent.

“I will be out of the office August 15-22,” read the email sent to Fox News. Instead, Psaki’s response asks the press to contact other press officers in his absence.

Psaki’s leave time comes as Biden has been criticized for staying on vacation as the Taliban take control of much of Afghanistan, even going as far as the capital Kabul and seizing the presidential palace at a rate that caught the White House off guard. .

Biden has remained mostly silent on the matter, a fact that has not escaped much criticism from the president.

“Where’s Joe Biden,” asked Representative Jim Banks, a Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan, asked on Twitter as the crisis unfolded on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the White House only broke its silence to share a photo of the president briefed on the situation by senior officials. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR TOP STORY.

In other developments:
– Biden’s prediction on Afghanistan fails dramatically
-Al Jazeera, linked to terrorism, obtains “exclusive” access to presidential palace stormed by Taliban in Kabul
– Trey Gowdy: “Have we kept our word” to the Afghan people?
– World leaders blame Biden, express disappointment with Afghanistan
– Taliban release thousands of prisoners from former US base: report
– US prepares to house thousands of Afghan refugees at US military facilities

The toll of the powerful earthquake in Haiti stands at 1,297
The death toll from a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Haiti rose to 1,297 on Sunday, a day after the powerful earthquake turned thousands of structures to rubble and sparked frantic rescue efforts before a potential downpour from an approaching storm.

Saturday’s earthquake also left at least 5,700 injured in the Caribbean country, and thousands more were displaced from their destroyed or damaged homes. Survivors in some areas were forced to wait out in the scorching heat for help from overcrowded hospitals.

The devastation could soon worsen with the arrival of Tropical Depression Grace, which is expected to reach Haiti on Monday evening. The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that although Grace weakened on Sunday due to the strength of the tropical storm, she still posed a threat from heavy rain, flooding and landslides.

The earthquake struck the southwestern part of the hemisphere’s poorest nation, nearly flattening some cities and triggering landslides that hampered rescue efforts in a country already struggling with the coronavirus pandemic , a presidential assassination and a wave of gang violence.

The epicenter was about 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince, the US Geological Survey said, and aftershocks continued to rock the area on Sunday. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

In other developments:
– Wildfires in the West threaten thousands of homes, strain resources
– Scientists defy the “alarm bells” in the IPCC report on climate change: “Not the end of the world”

Chicago weekend violence: 5 dead in the city, including a 7-year-old girl; at least 47 shots
At least five people were killed and 42 others were injured in shootings in Chicago over the weekend, authorities said.

Chicago police said nine teenagers and two young girls were shot dead in the city from Saturday afternoon through Sunday.

At around 3 p.m. Sunday, a 7-year-old girl was killed and her 6-year-old sister was injured in a shooting in the Belmont Central neighborhood in the northwest of the city, police said.

The girls were sitting in a parked vehicle when someone opened fire, according to the Chicago Tribune. The 7-year-old girl was shot in the chest and taken to Loyola University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. The other girl was shot in the chest and armpits and stabilized in the same hospital.

The weekend’s first homicide happened at 5:15 p.m. Friday in Belmont Cragin, in the northwest. An 18-year-old man was in the middle of the street when someone passed in a vehicle and shot him.

On Friday night, one person was killed and two others injured in a shooting on the Eisenhower Freeway, police said. Two people, aged 21, suffered fatal injuries and a 17-year-old boy died, Chicago-based WBBM-TV reported.

At around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, four people were shot dead while standing outside a residence in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. CLICK HERE FOR MORE.

In other developments:
– Shooting in a sports bar in Texas: at least 3 dead, 2 injured, according to the authorities
– Michigan MP dies after being shot in chase with gunman
– DC’s triple fire kills 1 and 2 injured amid city crime wave

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READ TODAY:
– Florida 911 calls were posted after woman was killed by toddler in Zoom call: “Blood is everywhere”
– Fully vaccinated southwest flight attendant dies from COVID-19
– NIH Director Collins: Unvaccinated Americans “are sitting ducks” as delta variant causes “world of suffering”
– SPLC keeps Christian group on “hate map” 9 years after terrorist attack

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A FEW WORDS OF APART

Steve hilton reacted to the chaos in Afghanistan and President Biden’s attempt to abdicate his responsibilities, saying “Biden is throwing away everything that has been spent in the past two decades.”

“Billions of dollars wasted, thousands of American lives lost,” he said, adding “even more lives destroyed as mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and friends and neighbors watch with disbelief and rage this clumsy idiot in the White House, this barely lucid puppet of the establishment, this weak, incompetent, useless excuse of a president practically erases overnight the meager justification that ever existed for this disastrous mishap. “

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Fox News First was compiled by Jack Durschlag of Fox News. Thanks for making us your first choice in the morning! We’ll see you in your inbox early Tuesday.