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BUCK: We got Doris in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. It’s Open Line Friday, 800-282-2882. You all know the number. Doris, what’s up?

CALLER: I find it strangely curious, but I’m not aware of even one American rescued from the Afghanistan debacle has been interviewed for television or radio. They’ve interviewed all these other nimnods, but they have not interviewed one American that has been brought back home, that I’m aware of it. What say you?

BUCK: Well, it’s interesting, Doris, and I gotta say, I do so much of my own prep and work throughout the day. I also do an hour of TV at the first and I pop up on Fox sometimes. Clay works at Fox and does a million other shows. So I can’t claim to know what’s on all the other shows, all the other channels all the time. But I gotta say, as Doris asked that question, I can’t think of anyone — any American — who’s been on TV who was part of the withdrawal. Clay, have you seen anyone?

CLAY: I haven’t — or somebody who was left behind and couldn’t get out and has been able to now get into the country. It’s an interesting discussion. No, I haven’t. And this is one of the big topics we talked about as Afghanistan disaster played out, how long would that story linger? And for most part, for the most part it’s gone.

BUCK: And I’ve heard from people. I’m still in contact with folks who are now very quietly — ’cause the game has changed a lot, so to speak, right? It used to be, “All hands on deck! Get all the planes. Get everybody out,” ’cause it was a little bit more overt ’cause there was the Taliban deadline that basically, more or less, let people leave up to this point.

Now for people who are still left behind, they’re trying to do things much more quietly, and so there’s a little bit of that going on, too, because they don’t want to bring attention to an effort maybe to have some kind of a deal. Look, there’s probably gonna be money exchanging hands to get people out at this point with the Taliban, and that starts to get a little bit more under the radar to begin with. So I think that is actual… I know that some efforts are underway to try to get people out who still there.

CLAY: I think the Biden administration has gambled that the American public’s history of being able to remember what’s going on in Afghanistan is going to fade rapidly. Now, where I think Biden is going to struggle with Afghanistan is, it aids the overall impression of incompetence in everything you look at: The border, inflation, the budget, infrastructure.

Right now, everything surrounding Afghanistan, what Biden touches turns — if it wasn’t already — into a level of incompetence. And what’s left behind is kind of this dull sheen of memory that doesn’t necessarily directly impact Afghanistan. But it’s like, “Oh, this Biden guy’s incompetent.”

BUCK: It’s true now, but you gotta think over the next year all the op-eds, all the TV news anchors and everything who are gonna be saying Biden ended the war. That’s gonna be it. They’re gonna say forget about how he ended up it. They’re gonna say he ended up it and that drumbeat over time may be enough. They’re not gonna make you and me forget. They’re not gonna make this audience forget.

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: Can they make the 1 or 2% going into the midterms that makes the difference in a Pennsylvania congressional race or in a Senate race, you name it? That’s the game they’re playing, I think.