President Joe Biden blamed former President Trump for the disastrous pull out of Afghanistan he ordered after Trump slammed him for the incident in a recent speech.
Trump laid into President Biden during a speech in Mar-a-Lago, after returning from his indictment proceedings in New York on Tuesday. Trump lambasted Biden for the 13 American lives lost, the Americans left behind, the billions of dollars of military left behind, and the injuries suffered due to the messiness of the 2021 Afghanistan pull-out. Hundreds of Afghans also died in the suicide bombings that claimed American lives.
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On Thursday, the Biden administration released its first after-action review regarding the operation. Just moments after the document was released, President Biden slipped out the front door of the White House to a waiting helicopter, departing Washington to spend the Easter holiday weekend at Camp David. He did not take any questions.
The review blames the Trump administration for the disaster, claiming that his promises of a May 2021 pull-out ruined the operation and forced it to occur.
“During the transition from the Trump Administration to the Biden administration, the outgoing administration provided no plans for how to conduct the final withdrawal or to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies,” the document states. “There were no such plans in place when President Biden came into office, even with the agreed-upon full withdrawal just over three months away.”
In Biden’s absence, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was left to field inquiries from reporters about the 12-page document.
One reporter noted the quick turnaround on the news.
“We want the record to reflect this was sent to us about 10 minutes before the briefing began, with little notice, and It’s the very definition of a modern major holiday news dump…..after months of requests.”
CBS's @EdOKeefe SLAMS the Biden WH & John Kirby for releasing a report on the Afghanistan withdrawal was sent to us "about 10 minutes before the briefing began, with little notice": "It's the very definition of a modern major holiday news dump…after months of requests" pic.twitter.com/GaZpssi6Ck
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2023
Kirby and the reporter, Ed O’Keefe, continued to go back and forth. O’Keefe mentioned Biden defied the unanimous advice of his top security officials on how to conduct the evacuation, a point Kirby avoided by saying advisors agreed the military should evacuate.
CBS's @EdOKeefe: Biden "'received & accepted the unanimous advice of his top security officials to end the evacuation on August 31'…What is the definition of top officials b/c…Gen. McKenzie…said he objected to…this?"
Kirby: "I am loathe to get into the individual advice" pic.twitter.com/PCjwJcVcOK
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2023
At one point, O’Keefe pointed out that while the report had four pages blaming the Trump administration, there was no mention of any shortcomings of the Biden administration.
“There’s 4 pgs of blame on the [Trump] administration. Nowhere in here does there appear to be any expression of accountability or mistake by either [Biden] or others. Is there any?”
Kirby deflected that the fact that the report exists as a public document shows accountability, regardless of its completely non-self-critical content. Kirby also noted Biden had appointed a committee to evaluate the Afghan war overall, its entire 20-year history, framing that accountability as well.
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CBS's @EdOKeefe: "There's 4 pgs of blame on the [Trump] administration…Nowhere…does there appear to be any expression of accountability or mistake by either [Biden] or others. Is there any"?
"Kirby: "I would argue that…we…decided to go conduct after-action reviews…" pic.twitter.com/U3JZx2tDCi
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2023
Kirby said the administration was “proud” of the withdrawal, mentioned no plans to fire anyone, and insisted the report was not about accountability even as he attempted to paint Biden as responsible.
Understandably, reporters in the room were skeptical of the position.
Doocy; You’re saying you guys are proud of the way this mission was conducted?
Kirby: Proud of the fact that we got more than 124k people safely out of Afghanistan? You bet… pic.twitter.com/2hMROLOGjU— Acyn (@Acyn) April 6, 2023
Twitter users were similarly appalled at Kirby, claiming the pull-out “wasn’t perfect” and that “there is a lot to be proud of.”
Today was the most dishonest @WhiteHouse press briefing I have attended in the past three years. The White House blamed @realDonaldTrump for the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan and massive intelligence failure, and said they were proud of how it all unfolded. pic.twitter.com/VseKB9vkBL
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) April 6, 2023
The botched Afghanistan withdrawal that saw 13 soldiers needlessly lose their lives is 100% on Joe Biden.
Not Trump. Not anyone else. Just Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/kSpMWGrPoL
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) April 6, 2023
RNC Research tweeted a video casting doubt on Kirby’s claims, showing Biden’s initial expectations and promises around the withdrawal that proved to be wrong.
Biden told us Afghanistan wouldn’t fall. He told us it would be a safe and orderly withdrawal. He told us it was “highly unlikely” the Taliban would overrun the country.
He was completely wrong. Accountability is coming.pic.twitter.com/vqWya0fPTo
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 6, 2023
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