Linda Thomas-Greenfield, President Joe Biden’s ambassador to the United Nations, faced backlash this week after she said during a CNN interview that the administration was responding to threats of aggression by the Taliban against women and girls by sending them a “strongly worded press statement.”
“The U.N. Secretary-General is saying that they’re already getting – and I’m quoting him now – ‘chilling reports of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan,’” CNN host Wolf Blitzer said. “What specifically are you learning about those threats?”
“We are hearing from people in Afghanistan that they are getting threats from the Taliban,” Thomas-Greenfield responded. “And we have expressed, in no uncertain terms, here at the United Nations through a very strongly worded press statement from the Security Council, that we expect the Taliban to respect human rights, including the rights of women and girls. We have also indicated that they have to be respectful of humanitarian law, and that we do not expect to see that Afghanistan will become a safe haven for terrorists. But again, it is not their words that we will hold them to, it is their actions that we will be watching.”
WATCH:
🇺🇸 Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield says U.S. expressed "in no uncertain terms" at the United Nations through "a very strongly worded press statement" from the Security Council that "we expect the Taliban to respect women's rights" and "to be respectful of humanitarian law." pic.twitter.com/32TEyRFu4O
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 18, 2021
Top responses to Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks included:
- Stephen Miller, political commentator: “This admin actually went full Team America. Astounding.”
- Dr. Mark Young: “Well now that we have written them a stern letter I am sure that a bunch of barbarians that rape women and behead innocent people will rethink their life choices.”
- Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR): “This can’t be real.”
- Geoffrey Ingersoll, Daily Caller editor-in-chief: “The Taliban just survived a 20-year dose-e-doe with the greatest combined military might in the history of the world and we expect them to yield to a ‘strongly worded press statement.'”
- John Cooper: “Embarrassing. The only ‘strongly worded statements’ the Taliban understands are delivered via M4, A-10, or AC-130.”
- Allie Beth Stuckey, political commentator: “Most of the non-Western world doesn’t have a concept of a ‘right’ or ‘humanitarian law.” The basis for these is rooted in a Biblical ethic, whether the modern West wants to acknowledge that or not. The difference between the Taliban & us is primarily & fundamentally theological.”
- Josh Gerstein, reporter: “Comedy clearly has a place even amidst crisis.”
- Ben Shapiro: “That strongly worded statement to eighth-century barbarians will definitely change things after we completely surrendered billions in military hardware to them. Well done.”
- Professor Gerald M Steinberg: “File under: Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
- Joel M. Petlin: “As long as the US issued *a very strongly worded press statement* I’m sure the Taliban will immediately change course, because jihadists who institute Sharia Law, ban women from school & most jobs, require burqas, & ban musical instruments & movies, REALLY fear a strong statement.”
- James Jay Carafano: “This gets to the heart of the Biden screw-up. Never bring ‘smart’ power answers to a hard power problem.”