CBS Mornings on Wednesday highlighted the plight of an Ukrainian American who went to Poland to rescue her niece and nephew. They were all turned away from the American embassy and are now basically stranded. Co-host Tony Dokoupil only referred to “reassurance[s] from the U.S. government.” He played a clip of the President, but never said the words “Joe Biden” while recounting this harrowing tale.
At the border of Poland and Ukraine, the host noted that, “according to the State Department, Ukrainians are only being considered for resettlement in America if the countries they fled into are also unsafe.” Dokoupil talked to Maryna Seifi, an Ukrainian American who flew from San Francisco to find her young relatives. Seifi explained her treatment at the hands of the Biden government: “When we went to the American embassy, they just turned us away. They have no sympathy, no understanding, even when I say I am American citizen. I want to take my kids.”
Notice how Dokoupil managed to avoid the words “Joe Biden.”
DOKOUPIL: Despite reassurance from the U.S. government —
JOE BIDEN: We're going to keep providing security assistance, economic assistance, and humanitarian assistance.
DOKOUPIL: — and special protections for Ukrainians already living in the U.S., the State Department so far hasn't announced any exceptions for those fleeing the war even if their closest family relatives are American. Seifi was stunned.
Kudos to CBS for at least covering this story and including a clip of Biden. But how about some discussion of the President's responsibility and for changing the policy?
Seifi condemned:
When the leaders of the country, right, tell you ‘We stand with you, we support you,’ this is not actual support. Actual support is when you help me to bring my family. They don't have any place to go. They have to go with me.
Dokoupil managed to at least mention one Democrat, the Congressman of Seifi: “We reached out to Seifi's congressman, that’s Representative Eric Swalwell, whose office did tell us they are going to be contacting her and will help in whatever way they can. Remains to be seen what that way will be.”
If all of this sounds familiar, it should. By the end of August, the Biden administration abandoned Americans trapped in Afghanistan. In August of 2021, there was 409 minutes of the debacle in Afghanistan. By October of last year, it had dropped to just 16 minutes on the evening newscasts.
The playing down of who might be responsible for Ukrainian stories like this one was sponsored by Progressive insurance. Click on the link to let them know what you think.
A transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS Mornings
3./9/2022
7:09 AM ETTONY DOKOUPIL: More than two million refugees have fled that war in Ukraine in the last two weeks alone, and some of them have families back in the United States. But according to the State Department, Ukrainians are only being considered for resettlement in America if the countries they fled into are also unsafe. We spoke to one Ukrainian American who flew all the way to Poland from San Francisco hoping to fly back with two teenage relatives and learned here that that's not allowed. As reports spread that war was coming to the Ukrainian city of Odessa, Maryna Seifi told her 19-year-old sister Victoria and 16-year-old nephew Ilya about the 622 train to Poland and told them to run.
MARYNA SEIFI: They were able to jump on a train and stay tight, yes, like that. There were a lot of people who were trying to get out.
DOKOUPIL: The moment the teens were safely on board, Seifi and her husband ran, as well, boarding the next flight from California to Poland and leaving behind their two children. The youngest just 2 years old.
SEIFI: The directions were that as soon as they get out of the train, you are not going to any volunteers, you wait ten days, 20 days until your auntie comes to pick you up.
DOKOUPIL: They reunited five days ago on that now-famous train platform thinking the hard part was over. But that's where the family's luck ran out.
SEIFI: When we went to the American embassy, they just turned us away. They have no sympathy, no understanding, even when I say I am American citizen, I want to take my kids.
DOKOUPIL: Despite reassurance from the U.S. Government —
JOE BIDEN: We're going to keep providing security assistance, economic assistance, and humanitarian assistance.
DOKOUPIL: — and special protections for Ukrainians already living in the U.S., the State Department so far hasn't announced any exceptions for those fleeing the war even if their closest family relatives are American. Seifi was stunned.
SEIFI: When the leaders of the country, right, tell you ‘We stand with you, we support you,’ this is not actual support. Actual support is when you help me to bring my family. They don't have any place to go. They have to go with me.
DOKOUPIL: To make matters worse, Victoria lost her passport in the rush out of Odessa.
SEIFI: Poland let her in without checking the documents. They allow people in without even birth certificates because there is a humanity, and why America cannot be human?
DOKOUPIL: The situation has left her in what feels like an impossible no-man's land. She can't leave her family in Ukraine, but she also needs to get back to her children in America. How long can you stay in this limbo?
SEIFI: It's extremely hard. I'm a fighter. I'm going to be fighting for them. I will not send them back. I will never send them back.
DOKOUPIL: But stuck in Poland and prohibited for now from entering the U.S., there's only one place these teenagers really want to be.
SEIFI: She wants to go home.
DOKOUPIL: Right now no one else in Seifi's family is able to get out of Ukraine to be with those kids you're looking at there. Ilya's mother, seifi's other sister, is a police officer and must stay. And their grandmother is not well enough to travel, so she's stuck there, as well. We reached out to Seifi's congressman, that’s Representative Eric Swalwell, whose office did tell us they are going to be contacting her and will help in whatever way they can. Remains to be seen what that way will be. For now, I'll send it back to you in New York.
NATE BURLESON: As we see these families in Ukraine, let's keep in mind there's no bigger family than the human race. This is not a Ukrainian issue. This is a humanitarian issue.
