NatSec adviser Jake Sullivan reminds us that US Embassy evacuations '[happen] from time to time'

Sarah D | 2:19 PM on April 24, 2023

Just a few days ago, we learned that the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, was being evacuated.

🚨 #BREAKING: A HEAVY US military presence—including military helicopters and combat aircraft—have been spotted in the skies above the U.S. embassy compound in Sudan as fighting continues

⚠️ EVACUATIONS OF THE EMBASSY ARE UNDERWAY pic.twitter.com/PThq1Nfcum

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 22, 2023

That brought the grand total of evacuated U.S. Embassies up to on Joe Biden’s careful watch up to three (the first, of course, was the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan during Biden’s disastrous troop withdrawal; second was the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine). Surely the Biden administration is concerned about this disturbing trend, right? Who wouldn’t be concerned about it?

As it turns out, the Biden administration wouldn’t be concerned about it. Listen to this from NatSec adviser Jake Sullivan and see if you can detect any concern whatsoever:

REPORTER: "The Biden administration now has lost two U.S. embassies during the president's term…"

JAKE SULLIVAN: "I'm not sure what you mean by a charge about 'losing embassies…' This happens from time to time…" pic.twitter.com/X2cRRoaiWs

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 24, 2023

Transcript:

“I’m not sure what you mean by a charge about, quote-unquote, ‘losing embassies. The, uh, the broader diplomatic community, including the entire United Nations community in Khartoum, uh, has closed down, um, in Sudan. Uh, diplomatic personnel from allies and partners around the world are being evacuated, uh, and of course, the United States has evacuated its personnel. Uh, this happens from time to time, and if you look back over the course of months and years, you see military-assisted departures from embassies, you see in some cases non-combative evacuation operations. Um, that’s in the nature of having 270 total diplomatic posts around the world. There will be times when the conditions are not conducive to sustaining operations in all 270 at the same time.”