Uncle Joe’s approval ratings have been cratering of late, sitting at 4.2% underwater in the RealClearPolitics polling average as of this writing. It’s no great secret why: an epically botched Afghanistan withdrawal that has irreparably sullied America’s already-tarnished reputation on the world stage, directly emboldened our Chinese Communist Party geopolitical archfoe, beclowned many of our leading government officials, revealed the pitfalls of moralistic nation-building crusades, and more generally been such an extraordinary debacle so as to be an impeachable offense for President Biden.

The worst aspect of this sordid affair has been the administration’s outright deceit on the matter of its single greatest failure: its inability to adequately ensure that all American civilians were properly evacuated before the last U.S. military plane left Kabul. 

“We’re gonna stay to get them all out,” Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on August 19 about Americans stranded in Afghanistan. We now know that is a monstrous lie, as was made crystal-clear with this past weekend’s horrific reports of the now-reigning Taliban not permitting stranded Americans to fly out of Mazar-i-Sharif Airport.

And it is now a monstrous lie that the administration is clumsily doubling down on, clinging to the hope that sufficient gaslighting might persuade Americans not to believe their eyes.

The disgraced secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had the temerity to assert that he is “not aware of anyone being held on an aircraft or any hostage-like situation.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who has been the administrations’ chief forward-facing propagandist throughout this entire saga, also flatly denied that the situation on the ground in Afghanistan amounts to a hostage situation. “What we have seen is, individuals who have documentation have been able to depart, but we don’t have an understanding of every individual on these manifests,” she unartfully word-vomited.

Come again?

Let’s not mince words. Yes, there are still Americans stranded behind enemy lines —stranded, that is, in a country now governed by a 7th century-aspiring jihadist group whose new interim government includes former Gitmo detainees and al-Qaeda-aligned Haqqani Network members. And yes, let’s say the “h”-word: Those Americans stranded are hostages.

Psaki and her cohorts can use Orwellian language all they want as Blinken and Foggy Bottom attempt to negotiate away the Taliban’s capricious demands — but, lest we forget, this is the Taliban. This a hostage crisis.

The Biden administration has caused incalculable damage to the nation over the course of this still-ongoing fiasco. The very least we can ask of them is to quit lying about what’s really going on.

Josh Hammer is Newsweek opinion editor and a research fellow with the Edmund Burke Foundation. Twitter: @josh_hammer.