State Department Estimates 1,500 Americans Still in Afghanistan

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans were still in Afghanistan. Of that group, Blinken said the State Department was in “direct contact” with about 500 and “aggressively reaching out” to the remaining 1,000 “multiple times a day through multiple channels of communication.” About 6,000 Americans were in the country when the Taliban took Kabul on Aug. 14, Blinken said, and about 4,500 of the 82,300 people evacuated by the U.S. had American passports. The new figures came less than a week before President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but Blinken stressed that evacuation efforts would continue for both Americans and Afghan allies, saying, “That effort will continue every day past August 31.”

Most coverage across the spectrum focused on the 1,500 figure. Some coverage in left-rated outlets highlighted the 500 Americans in contact with the State Department. Some right-rated outlets framed Blinken’s announcement negatively; Fox News and the New York Post used the taglines “The Stranded” and “Still Stranded,” an apparent reference to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s comments from Monday.