BUCK: The big headline, I think, for a lot of folks is that more than half, they think, of the translators and other SIVs — SIV, Special Immigrant Visa — recipients that were supposed to — under agreement with the United States government — get out, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that less than half of them actually got out.

CLAY: Yeah, this is just… It really is crazy, Buck. You can’t even satirize the futility, the failure and the catastrophic disaster that is our leaving of Afghanistan. Nothing, Buck.

You can’t even point to anything and say, “Hey, you know what? This went better than we reasonably could have expected” as all of this comes out. Including, by the way, more lies from Biden that he was requesting from the Afghani president. It’s all just adding up to a level of futility that’s even worse than any of us could have ever possibly believed.

BUCK: Jen Psaki posed with the query about the leaked transcript. Just so you know, there’s a transcript that Reuters reported on and now everyone is reporting on it. It’s a call between Joe Biden and the —

CLAY: Afghani president.

BUCK: Yes, the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani. Former president, ’cause now the —

CLAY: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Well…

BUCK: — Taliban as of today has a few announcements. One, they’re forming a new government, because they actually run the country and are in charge, no surprise. And we’re also already beginning to hear from some of our generals about how the Taliban may become… (chuckling) I’m just telling you what they’re saying. This is one of those things where I don’t even want to say it because there are going to be heads exploding all over the country, especially for our veterans who were fighting the Taliban for so many years.

That the Taliban — according to the generals, the four stars, et cetera — could become a counterterrorism partner against the Islamic State! Now, let me tell you right now, I would not hold your breath on that one in any meaningful way. We can’t even count on Pakistan to be a reliable — as a country, to be a reliable — counterterrorism partner. I don’t think the new Taliban government in Afghanistan, is going to be suddenly someone who we can count on to, let’s be honest, past intelligence to us and/or take action themselves in “kinetic strikes,” a euphemistic way of saying, “killing bad guys,” on behalf of our war on terror. I know this is the upside-down, crazy world we’re living in. Here’s Jen Psaki on that leaked transcript.

REPORTER: Was the president in any way pushing a false narrative in that call with the Afghan president?

PSAKI: I think it’s pretty clear — again, I’m not going to go into details of a private conversation. But what we saw over the course of the last few months is a — a collapse in leadership, and that was happening even before Ghani left the country.

BUCK: Um, the answer to the question is, “Yes, Joe Biden was pushing him to lie to his own people,” lie to Ashraf Ghani’s people, and now he’s with people… I don’t know. Now he’s probably in the south of France buying a lot of Chanel handbags. But the point is, Joe Biden wanted him to lie and say that they weren’t losing, when they were.

CLAY: And also, how about we get the transcript fully of this one, or the audio? I mean, if you’re going to impeach Trump — and, again, I know impeachment is not going to lead anywhere. But the standard for Trump impeachment was one call with the Ukrainian president. Here is Joe Biden not only failing in Afghanistan, but asking for the leader of Afghanistan to lie to help his messaging both in Afghanistan and also Joe Biden in America. I mean, it’s crazy.

BUCK: Yeah.

CLAY: It’s absolutely insane.

BUCK: And by the way, if there was nothing wrong with it, then why doesn’t Joe Biden say, “You know what? Look, it’s wartime. We had to say what we had to say.” Right?

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: No. Instead, they want to pretend that they were doing that.