Leavitt insists U.S. had plans in place to evacuate Americans despite delays

As the Trump administration faces criticism from Democrats in Congress while many Americans in the Middle East are scrambling to find a way to get home, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the administration had a plan in place.

CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes pointed out that, as recently as Tuesday night, days into the war, the State Department hotline that Americans abroad were urged to call told them “do not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure.”

Leavitt said that the automated message has since been fixed.

Cordes asked why the administration didn’t focus more on having a plan in place for immediate evacuations, given how critical the president and his allies have been of the chaotic and deadly U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

“Again, I just laid out for you that there have been plans in place and that the State Department has been very clear to the American people, that traveling within this region, not to travel to these regions,” Leavitt said. “We gave notices to leave immediately the countries where these Americans were within.”

Widespread notices for Americans to leave those Middle Eastern countries didn’t come until well after the U.S. attack on Iran began.