President Biden has also appeared to mislead the American people on the presence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and whether Americans are having problems getting through Taliban checkpoints. CNN's Brianna Keilar pressed National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on why Biden was "misleading with his words" on those two points. Sullivan said he "rejected" her characterization, insisting that U.S. intelligence has shown Al Qaeda in Afghanistan does not currently represent a threat to the United States homeland.

"There's a serious disconnect between the messaging from the Biden administration, which is essentially, 'We've got this, we have a plan, we're getting this under control. If you want to get out of Afghanistan, you can,'" The Associated Press' Julie Pace said on Sunday's "Inside Politics." "And then what we're seeing on the ground from really brave reporters who are there, from a lot of Afghan civilians who are sharing pictures of images of the scene outside the airport where, no, you cannot get out if you want to get out." 

Since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban have regained control of major parts of the country. Stunning images have captured Afghans desperately clinging to U.S. airplanes in attempts to flee the extremist group.

Pace rejected any suggestion from the White House the situation in Kabul is stable.

"It's very difficult to get through," she added. "We see again today that there is violence, chaos outside the gates of the airport. And so I think the onus is on the Biden administration to do two things: One, to actually get that situation under control and then two, to be upfront with the American people about what's going on. They can see it with their own eyes at this point."

CNN's Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny agreed the Biden White House's messaging on the crisis was "bizarre," taking particular issue with the president's response to a question about whether allies around the world had lost confidence in the U.S. following Biden's bungled response. 

"I have seen no question of our credibility from our allies around the world," Biden claimed on Friday.

But his answer came on the heels of German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling the rapid withdrawal an "absolutely bitter development," and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitting it was "fair to say" the U.S. decision to withdraw troops "accelerated" the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. Since Biden's press conference, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair criticized the president for what he called an "abandonment" of Afghanistan.

"The world is now uncertain of where the West stands because it is so obvious that the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in this way was driven not by grand strategy but by politics," Blair wrote in an essay published on the website of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. 

"You have to question, is the president insulated, isolated?" Zeleny asked on CNN. "On Friday it was almost bizarre. What he was saying did not match the reality of what some of his other advisers were saying."

"I think this will be a very defining moment in the Biden presidency about what we learn of him as president, but it seems to me he's a bit insulated or isolated inside the White House," Zeleny continued.

The president, Zeleny said, may have "empathy" for the situation in Afghanistan, but has been unable to focus on the task at hand and has oftentimes been too defensive.

 National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that a "fair amount" of U.S. weaponry had fallen into the hands of the Taliban since the hard-line Islamic militant group's rapid takeover Afghanistan in recent days.

During a White House press briefing, Sullivan was ask what will happen with the billions of dollars in equipment, including guns, ammunition, helicopters, and more, given to the Afghanistan government in the two decades before its collapse.

"We don't have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone," the Biden adviser answered briefly. "But certainly, a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and, obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport."

According to Jake Sullivan, Biden’s top National Security Advisor, he says “the Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport. And we intend to hold them to that commitment.”

When asked if he believed the Taliban would keep their word, Sullivan ignored it and went to the next question, which was about any deadlines that are being discussed for this ‘safe passage’. Sullivan suggested that it should go until August 31st, but they are discussing that with the Taliban.

While this is certainly the worst possible scenario in which to evacuate our people, the Biden administration must do everything they can to get our people out. What’s unfortunate is that when Sullivan claims we will hold the Taliban to their commitment, our reputation has just been trashed in the biggest way possible and it wouldn’t surprise me if the Taliban offer’s safe passage and then tries to pull the rug out from under us as we attempt to evacuate our people.

This morning I told you that John Kirby from the Pentagon told CNN that they have no plans to go round up Americans trapped in Kabul and bring them to the airport for evacuation, because of what he suggested was a non-ideal security situation on the ground in Kabul. In other words, for now they are on their own to get there.

Well now we are learning that the Biden administration is trying to negotiate safe passage for these Americans to get to the Kabul airport:

Asked later about reports about Taliban-run checkpoints outside of the airport, beatings and whippings for some who try to pass through, Sullivan said they are aware of those reports and concerned but are "taking it up" with the Taliban directly.

"It's certainly the case that the speed with which cities fell was much greater than anyone anticipated including the Afghans, including many of the analysts of who looked hard at this problem," Sullivan said.

"Part of the reason for that is because at the end of the day, despite the fact that we spent 20 years and tens of billions of dollars to give the best equipment, the best training and the best capacity to the Afghan national security forces, we could not give them the will," Sullivan said. "And they ultimately decided that they would not fight for Kabul and they would not fight for the country, and that opened the door to the Taliban to come into Kabul very rapidly."

Sullivan added that there "the capacity to stand up and resist" the Taliban's advances on Kabul, but "that capacity didn't happen."

"I think the worst-case scenario for the United States would be a circumstance in which we were adding back in thousands and thousands of troops to fight and die in a civil war in Afghanistan when the Afghan army wasn't prepared to fight itself," he said. "That was the alternative choice Joe Biden faced."

Sullivan added that the president was left with only "bad choices" and that "no amount" of training, equipment, money or time spent would put the Afghan army in a position to succeed. 

"And the choice he made was to bring U.S. forces home, to get us out of that civil war, to get our diplomats out of the embassy and to ultimately ask the Afghans to step up and fight for themselves," Sullivan said. "It is heartbreaking to see what's happening in Kabul, but the president had to make the best possible choice he could and he stands by that decision."

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