Minutes after President Biden on Friday said the mission to destroy Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was a success and that he knew of no circumstances where Americans had been unable to reach Kabul airport, he was flatly contradicted by the Pentagon.

Al Qaeda remains present in Afghanistan, said Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby during a briefing, and yes, he was aware of reports of Americans being beaten by the Taliban as they tried to reach safety.

The contradiction will raise further doubt about whether Biden is in control of the White House messaging operation, let alone the chaotic effort to bring Americans home.

He cancelled plans to return home to Wilmington on Friday evening as officials scrambled to give off an air of urgency.

He even answered questions about Afghanistan for the first time in 10 days after delivering a speech in the East Room of the White House.

Would he send troops out of their base in Hamid Karzai International Airport to help stranded Americans reach safety, he was asked.

'We have no indication that they haven't been able to get in Kabul through the airport,' he said.

'We've made an agreement with the Taliban thus far, they've allowed them to go through, it's in their interest for them to through.'

But a different view emerged in reports of a briefing call that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held with lawmakers, telling them that Americans had been beaten as they tried to reach the airport.

And officials at the Pentagon confirmed they were aware of Americans reporting being attacked.

'We're certainly mindful of these reports and they're deeply troubling and we have communicated to the Taliban that that's absolutely unacceptable, that we want free passage through their checkpoints for documented Americans and - by and large - that's happening,' said Kirby.

The gaffe followed a difficult week for the White House. Biden has been under intense pressure for holing up at Camp David at the weekend and staying largely out of sight during the week.

An interview with ABC News, designed to regain the initiative, was widely panned.

And on Friday Biden's comments about Al Qaeda, as he defended his decision to pull out U.S. troops, will also be seized on by fact checkers.

'We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, as well as getting Osama bin Laden,' he said. 'And we did.'

Fast forward a few minutes and the Pentagon was saying something different.

'We know that Al Qaeda is a presence, as well as ISIS, in Afghanistan,' said Kirby

'And we've talked about that for quite some time. We do not believe it is exorbitantly high.'

When pressed, he tried to close the gap between Biden's comments and his, saying: 'what we believe is that there isn't a presence that is significant enough to merit a threat to our homeland as there was back on 9/11, 20 years ago.'

However, terrorism experts have long said Al Qaeda continues to enjoy close relations with the Taliban.

Just this week, a Pentagon watchdog said the Taliban had been providing safe haven to the terrorist group all along.

A report by the Lead Inspector General for Operation Freedom's Sentinel - the name of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan - said terrorist networks including ISIS had made the most of the Department of Defense's drawdown.

'Additionally, the Taliban continued to maintain its relationship with al Qaeda, providing safe haven for the terrorist group in Afghanistan,' it said.

Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 terror attacks from Afghan soil, triggering the 2001 invasion by U.S. troops.

He was finally hunted down and killed by Navy Seals in neighboring Pakistan 10 years later.

Disrupting his network in Afghanistan has been a key part of the U.S. and NATO mission.