The Biden administration is still trying desperately to spin the botched military withdrawal from Afghanistan into something that does not resemble a complete disaster. The White House is now dealing with the aftermath that came after it released a report in which it simultaneously lauded the president’s handling of the matter, while also blaming the disastrous elements of the affair on none other than the Orange Man What Is Bad™.
During the Friday broadcast of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce discussed the matter the day after questioning the White House about the report. She explained how the administration acknowledged making some mistakes in its withdrawal of troops from the region, but still insisted that they did a wonderful job.
“The White House now concedes that they should have acted sooner, but this long-awaited report does not explicitly say that mistakes were made. And when I’ve asked repeatedly, the White House won’t say if the president has any regrets now, just that lessons were learned. And they are putting much of the blame for this withdrawal on the Trump administration,” she said.
The reporter also brought up how President Joe Biden laughably claimed the Afghanistan evacuation was an “extraordinary success” and said the White House is still defending their handling of the matter.
“Now, pressed on this, the White House is clear, despite pointing the finger and blaming the Trump administration for much of this, they say, ultimately, President Biden is commander-in-chief and he does bear responsibility,” she said.
During a Thursday press conference, Bruce and other members of the activist media questioned White House National Security spokesman John Kirby about the report and evacuation. When she asked if Biden has any “regrets about how [the withdrawal] was carried out,” Kirby indicated the president is “proud” of the withdrawal.
“The president is very proud of the manner in which the men and women of the military, the foreign service, the intelligence community … conducted this withdrawal,” Kirby said.
The official continued: “Look, I’ve been around operations my entire life and there’s not a single one that ever goes perfectly according to plan — things happen. Sometimes enemies get a vote.”
ABC's @MaryKBruce: "You made it clear the president did not have any regrets about his decision to withdraw. In reading this, does [he] have any regrets about how this withdrawal was carried out?"
Kirby: "[He] is very proud of the manner in which the…military…conducted this" pic.twitter.com/JQl3eC6J21
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2023
But, while Biden is “proud” of how his administration handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the report also places the lion’s share of the blame on former President Donald Trump. “President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” the author claims.
The report also says President Trump “provided no plans for how to conduct the final withdrawal or to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies.”
Even if this were true, wouldn’t it then mean that the Biden administration should have developed these plans before carrying out an incompetent evacuation?
RedState’s Nick Arama addressed this issue perfectly:
What did they do instead of taking responsibility for the debacle? They tried to blame Trump. Kirby said they were constricted by the timeline that had been agreed to for a May withdrawal of troops.
But this is nonsense, as Biden himself pushed back that date to coincide with September 11. He announced that in April. All of this was because he delayed until that date, which he thought would be a glory moment. He got people killed and left thousands of our allies behind for that.
Of course the Afghanistan withdrawal was Biden’s fault. Even if Trump had set a deadline, it was not ratified by Congress, meaning the White House could – and did – alter it at any time. Indeed, they could have completely reworked the plan if they wanted. But they chose not to. Even CBS News didn’t let them off the hook for their attempt to pass the blame.
CBS News on Biden’s shameful attempt to rewrite history on his Afghanistan withdrawal:
“Biden's decision to pull the U.S. out of Afghanistan led to the collapse of its government, its military, the death of 13 Americans, & it left tens of thousands of Afghans hoping to escape." pic.twitter.com/vzsYdls5Zt
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 7, 2023
No matter how the White House tries to spin it, America knows that this debacle was squarely on Biden’s hands. He won’t get to pass the buck on this one.
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