The Republican senator said he and other members of Congress “have been working around the clock” to help Americans still in Afghanistan.
Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, slammed President Joe Biden, sharing a report of a “hostage crisis” with Americans reportedly unable to evacuate Afghanistan as the Taliban prevent planes from taking off. “Joe Biden abandoned Americans in Afghanistan. Members of Congress, including me and my office, have been working around the clock to get them out – and for days Biden’s State Dept. couldn’t even get out of its own way. Now there are deeply disturbing reports of a hostage crisis,” Cruz tweeted on Sunday. The GOP senator retweeted CBS News correspondent Eana Ruffini, who reported that the Taliban are holding several flights from taking at Afghanistan’s northern Mazar-i-Sharif airport. The NGO Ascend, which is working to help evacuate hundreds of people, told CBS News that at least 19 Americans and two permanent residents are among those being prevented from leaving the country. The Associated Press reported Sunday that at least four aircraft were being blocked from taking off by the Taliban. The news agency reported that “hundreds of people” were attempting to evacuate Afghanistan aboard the aircraft. A State Department spokesperson told Newsweek that they “do not have a reliable means to confirm the basic details of charter flights, including who may be organizing them, the number of U.S. citizens and other priority groups on-board, the accuracy of the rest of the manifest, and where they plan to land, among many other issues.
