WATCH: Defensive Biden Says He KNEW That ‘Chaos’ Would Ensue In Afghanistan — ‘I Don’t Think It Was A Failure’
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Sporting a tan, and fresh from vacation, Joe sat down with Bill Clinton’s hatchet-man-turned serious ABC News journo, George Stephanopoulos to talk about the disastrous pull-out in Afghanistan.
During the interview, Biden defended the administration’s handling of the withdrawal and said that there was no scenario where “chaos” would not ensue.
On Monday, Biden said that they had “planned for every contingency” which was clearly not true.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, and the president’s first since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, President Joe Biden stood firm in his defense of the United States’ withdrawal, but asserted for the first time that he believes the chaos was unavoidable.
Source: ABC News
“When you look at what’s happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution or judgment?” asked Stephanopoulos.
“Look, I don’t think it was a fail–,” Biden began. He stopped himself from openly admitting that he didn’t believe that the pull-out was a failure. He restarted his answer, “Look, it was a simple choice, George. When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government, get in a plane and taking off and going to another country; when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, up to 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off — that was, you know, I’m not, that’s what happened. That’s simply what happened. And so the question was, in the beginning, the threshold question was, do we commit to leave within the timeframe we set, do we extend it to Sept. 1, or do we put significantly more troops in?”
President Biden, who said of this withdrawal, “The Buck Stops Here”, is throwing our Afghan allies who suffered tens of thousands of losses over the last 20 years under the Taliban bus.
Very classy, Joe!
What a prime example of the “foreign policy” expertise from the guy that Obama’s SecDef Robert Gates said has been “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” He said that he and Biden disagreed about Afghanistan and he believed that the then-Vice President had “some issues with the military.”
Biden also told Stephanopoulos that it was “4 or 5 days ago” when the videos of Afghanis on the runway trying to get onto a C-17 and two Afghani teen brothers fell to their deaths desperately trying to hold on as a plane ascended were shared widely on social media. The videos were taken on August 16 — only two days before Biden’s interview with Stephanopoulos.
Here are the two viral videos:
Video shows hundreds of people running alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the Kabul airport. https://t.co/9KvlpGgLnM pic.twitter.com/osGnDQX9rb
— ABC News (@ABC) August 16, 2021
Hey @NBCNews, is this Republicans pouncing, or desperate Afghanis falling from a C-17 taking off from the Kabul airport? pic.twitter.com/yOQns08PvG
— Aldous Huxley’s Ghost™ (@AF632) August 16, 2021
Biden became visibly upset when Stephanopoulos asked about the videos showing the desperation of the Afghan people flooding the runway at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
“We’ve all seen the pictures. We’ve seen those hundreds of people packed in a C-17. We’ve seen Afghans falling –” began Stephanopoulos.
“That was four days ago, five days ago!” interjected Biden.
Stephanopoulos didn’t challenge him on that, instead just asked a follow-up question.
“What did you think when you first saw those pictures?” asked Stephanopoulos.
“What I thought was, we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did,” Biden replied.
Stephanopoulos then asked Biden, “So you don’t think this could have been handled — this exit could have been handled better in any way, no mistakes?”
“No, I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that, we’re gonna go back in hindsight and look — but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens. I don’t know how that happened,” Biden responded.
“So for you, that was always priced into the decision?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Yes,” replied Biden.
Here is the teaser clip from ABC News that is going viral thanks to right-wing Twitter accounts calling out the New Bad Orange Man for not knowing what day it is.
EXCLUSIVE: Pressed on whether the U.S.’s exit from Afghanistan could have been handled better, Pres. Biden tells @GStephanopoulos, “The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing—I don’t know how that happens.” https://t.co/mH1AyWI5lb pic.twitter.com/osAwdDQy2L
— ABC News (@ABC) August 18, 2021
Here’s a longer teaser clip on ABC’s World News Tonight:
Closing down the Bagram airbase was an absolutely stupid move and hindered the ability to evacuate American citizens and the Afghan allies with Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) that were promised protection if things went sideways.
While Joe says that this sort of chaos was inevitable, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that former President Trump’s plan to pull troops out was working, but Biden tossed it.
Mike Pompeo: Biden needs to be held accountable for what befalls the U.S. from this hasty and unplanned withdrawal from Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/7UNjYGVxzY
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) August 17, 2021
As ClashDaily reported on Wednesday, Biden tossed the advice of military intel because he was no fan of the “forever war” in Afghanistan and desperately wanted to be the President who was able to get the troops out before the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Joe didn’t care what the cost was — he just wanted American troops out so he could have a great photo op 20 years after 9/11.
The cost isn’t just in lives and military equipment, it’s also our reputation. How can our allies trust us after this debacle?
Way to go, Joe!
It seems that Biden hasn’t been sleeping well this week.
Gee, I wonder why that could be?
Biden telling staff he wants to go back to Delaware. Hasn't been sleeping well this week. Thinks he will be more functional if he stays over at home in Wilmington.
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) August 18, 2021
That’s what happens when you needlessly put thousands of lives at risk, Joe.
Being President isn’t a part-time job. You can’t hide in Delaware forever, Joe.
At some point, you’re going to have to face the public.
Heck, UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced hours of grilling in Parliament because of the fallout from Joe’s decision.
The decisions a President makes can mean the matter of life or death.
Joe Biden needs to own this disastrous situation that will haunt the world for years to come.
