On his podcast, the Dinesh D’Souza Podcast, D’Souza said while the exact number of stranded Americans remains unknown, he was dismayed by the attempts of the Biden administration to minimize the situation.
Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza spoke to the severity of the ongoing hostage crisis in Afghanistan as US citizens remain stranded in the war-torn country.
On his podcast, the Dinesh D’Souza Podcast, D’Souza said while the exact number of stranded Americans remains unknown, he was dismayed by the attempts of the Biden administration to minimize the situation.
"They know these Americans are de-facto hostages," he said. "Biden has a hostage crisis in Afghanistan, much in the same way that Jimmy Carter had in Iran."
"The real difference is this: it’s not being acknowledged, either by Biden or his supporters in the media as a hostage crisis," said D’Souza, pivoting to the crisis faced by Carter.
"You remember in the Jimmy Carter days, the hostage crisis was front and center every day ... and it went on like that … in front of the American public and that put pressure on the Carter administration … because a crisis creates a sense of urgency."
"When you know Americans are held hostage, you’ve got to figure out a plan or a rescue. Some way of getting them back: a solution or an ultimatum."
D’Souza criticized Biden for not wanting to do any of this.
"What is their solution?" he asked rhetorically. "Their solution is let’s try and convince the American people that … maybe the Americans there don’t want to leave, or maybe they do want to leave, but this will be something we will kind of work on."
"There may be some people who dispute this characterization," said D'Souza, "as in Iran, radical students were holding these [hostages] in physical confinement, and that’s not going on in Afghanistan."
He contended that this is happening because the Taliban control the country.
"That is happening 100 percent," he added: "Are the Taliban a bunch of terrorists? Is this or is this not a terrorist regime?"
"It is. Therefore it follows that a terrorist regime now has full control over the fate of American allies in Afghanistan and American citizens."
D’Souza referenced a Biden quote from an interview on August 19, where Biden said, "We’re going to stay to get them all out."
"That was clearly untrue," he said, "as that didn’t happen."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also denied the situation on the ground, stating: "I wasn’t aware of anyone being held on an aircraft or any hostage-like situation."
"What he means is that he hasn’t seen people with blindfolds or the Taliban over them heavily armed, and absent of that physical image, he is saying there are no hostages," retorted D’Souza.
"By any normal definition of people who want to get out but are being held against their will, they can’t get out, and their country won’t get them out, except with the consent of the terrorists who are holding them."
"We have Americans stranded behind enemy lines, he said, adding this wasn’t a miscalculation or getting out in a hurry."
In concluding, D’Souza said, "[August 31] was a date set by the Biden administration in advance. This was a crisis that Biden made."
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