Do you hear that? It’s the sound of Democrats scurrying for the exits regarding Joe Biden’s Afghanistan disaster. While there are still true believers such as Sen. Chris Murphy and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (see what I did there?), others are now speaking out on the likely failure of the current evacuation effort.

Rep. Adam Schiff, of all people, dunked on Biden and his administration’s false claims last night by sharing details of a classified briefing that show just how tenuous the situation is.

“Given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated, the number of SIVs, the number of others who are members of the Afghan press, civil society leaders women leaders. It's hard for me to imagine all of that can be accomplished between now and the end of the month,”

— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) August 24, 2021

Let’s stop there because I want to discuss the timeline for a second.

Today is August the 24th, leaving only a week before the August 31st deadline. The Taliban have already come out and pantsed Biden by telling him there will be consequences if we stay past that date. But while a week would already be a nearly impossible amount of time to get everyone out, including the possibly tens of thousands of Americans stuck in Afghanistan, we can’t run the evacuation effort until the 31st. Rather, the operation will have to be shut down days prior in order to have time to get our military forces out.

That’s what the White House hasn’t been admitting in their obfuscation and obsession about the 31st. The clock is ticking and there’s much less time on it than is being indicated.

Schiff wasn’t done, though. He went on to essentially call Biden and Pentagon officials liars.

Finally Schiff said that the intel community was very aware that the Taliban had the ability to take over the country.
"the intelligence agencies assessments of the Afghan government's ability to maintain itself became increasingly pessimistic,” he said. (more)

— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) August 24, 2021

Schiff's take was echoed by Intel Committee Member Jason Crow:
"I do not believe at this point, sitting here today, that I have any evidence of a intelligence failure," Crow- a Democrat- told @jeremyherb

— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) August 24, 2021

Biden has routinely claimed that there was no intelligence indicating that what we are seeing today could happen. Schiff says the opposite here based on the classified briefing, noting that for the last six months(!) there were intel reports pointing not only to the collapse of the Afghan government but that it could happen in rapid fashion. It’s a remarkable turn given Schiff’s normal obedience to the White House message.

What all this says to me is that this evacuation is doomed to fail and the rats are now jumping ship. There’s just no way we get all the Americans on the ground (not just in Kabul as well) out by the 31st, especially given many of them will require individual rescue outside the wire of the airport. Unfortunately, we are looking at a major hostage crisis forming in the near future. When the end of the month hits and we still have thousands of Americans trapped, the Taliban are going to look to extract their next pound of flesh. Things are going to get really ugly, and there’s no reason to believe Biden is up for the challenge.