Jen Psaki criticised for ‘out of office’ as Biden stays in Camp David while Taliban seizes Kabul

Joe Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki has been accused of vacationing amid turmoil in Kabul, Afghanistan, where the Taliban seized control of the country’s capital weeks after the US president said it was “highly unlikely”.

Ms Psaki, whose email address was returning automated “out of office” replies on Sunday, was accused of remaining silent on the issue as Americans were airlifted out of Kabul on the heels of an advancing Taliban.

Hundreds more descended on Kabul’s international airport in an attempt to flee militants, who are returning to power after two decades of US and NATO intervention in Afghanistan following 9/11.

A Republican staffer, Matt Whitlock, tweeted on Sunday: “This is wild. Biden has no public events tomorrow, he's out of the White House until mid-week, and Psaki has an out-of-office reply that she's out for a week.”

According to reports, both Ms Psaki and Mr Biden were away from the White House, with the president staying at Camp David – the presidential country retreat in Maryland – as Kabul fell to the Taliban. Both were not expected to return to DC for days.

Mr Biden said only last month it was “highly unlikely” that Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban after the withdrawal of American forces by the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The Trump administration had previously agreed with the Taliban and the Afghan government to leave the country this spring.

The former US president was among the Republican voices calling out Mr Biden on Sunday for what has widely been seen as a failure in American foreign policy, with the speed of the Taliban's advance surprising officials and lawmakers alike.

"What Joe Biden has done with Afghanistan is legendary,” wrote Mr Trump in a statement on Sunday, which called for his resignation. “It will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history!”

The former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, added of Ms Psaki and the White House’s apparent silence: “[The] world watches a collapse of 20 years of US involvement in Afghanistan and White House takes vacation. I guess she will ‘circle back’.”

Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Republican senator John McCain, added: “Is anyone in the White House going to do anything?!?” – or will the Afghan interpreters who helped our troops for 20 years just be slaughtered while our President and his staff gets brunch and goes sailing?”

“This is all so bad it’s like some kind of twisted parody”.

Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state, told ABC News on Sunday that the retreat of US and international citizens and troops from Afghanistan and the the Taliban’s return was “not Saigon”, in reference to the country’s withdrawal and defeat in Vietnam in 1975.

“We went into Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind, and that was to deal with the people who attacked us on 9/11, and that mission has been successful,” said Mr Blinken.

Removing US forces from the country has been largely supported by polling in the US, with 70 per cent of Americans telling the Chicago Council they backed the idea.