Perhaps Joe Biden can start off his speech today by explaining who’s telling the truth about the “deadline” for evacuating Kabul. Biden told George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday that the US would go past Biden’s self-imposed August 31 deadline for leaving Kabul if there were still Americans and our allies in the city.

This morning, however, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told CNN”s Brianna Keilar that the evacuation will only go to that August 31 deadline. “You’re prepared to leave people behind,” Keilar attempted to clarify, and Bedingfield stuck to the deadline:

What you are not saying — I'm hearing in there that you're prepared to leave people behind [in Afghanistan]@WHCommsDir: We're doing everything we can to get as many people out who want to get out before the August 31st deadline. pic.twitter.com/Gtfze5sYt0

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 20, 2021

Bedingfield laughably claims that Biden’s “laser focused” on the evacuation. That’s absurd, especially given the news that Biden took 36 hours to reach out to our main partner in Afghanistan after Boris Johnson called him urgently to discuss this very point. While it’s true that presidents can work from pretty much anywhere, sitting on the Delaware beach while troops struggle to rescue Americans looks like anything but a “laser focus.”

Most of this is just spin until Keilar gets to the main point. “Close doesn’t count,” she tells Bedingfield, and cuts through the spin to pin her down on the key point. Keilar’s tweet makes it clear that Bedingfield didn’t impress her with her answer on the deadline.

So which is it? Are we sticking around until the mission of getting all Americans out is accomplished, like Biden said two days ago? Or will Biden abandon them if they can’t somehow figure out a way to evade Taliban patrols and checkpoints and make their own way to the airport in Kabul? One might think that a president would be laser focused on this basic question about the evacuation operation under way.

Speaking of Biden’s “laser focus” …

Biden going back to Delaware at 2pm today. pic.twitter.com/ojxbAPQXxZ

— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) August 20, 2021

So no questions, then?