Doocy Wrecks Kirby Over Gaslighting on Afghanistan Report, Claim That Purpose 'Is Not Accountability'

As we reported, a review that was being conducted by the Biden Administration over their handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle dropped on Thursday. In a classic case of trying to hide bad news, they dropped it right before a holiday weekend, likely hoping that it would get the least amount of coverage. Even so, although it claimed to be an “independent” report, you knew anything coming out from their administration wasn’t going to hold them to account.

Reporters at the White House briefing on Thursday were furious about this report dropping 10 minutes before the briefing started, and they weren’t shy about letting Kirby know it. How do you know how furious they are? They “want to let the record reflect” this because they know they’re being snookered here.

REPORTER: "This was sent to us about 10 minutes before the briefing began…It's the very definition of a modern major holiday news cover. Releasing this at the beginning of the high holidays…Why today? Is this all we get?"

KIRBY: "We felt it was the responsible thing to do." pic.twitter.com/WLIWcavJMs

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 6, 2023

“This was sent to us about 10 minutes before the briefing began,” the reporter said. “It’s the very definition of a modern major holiday news cover. Releasing this at the beginning of the high holidays…Why today? Is this all we get?” Kirby claims that what they did was the “responsible thing to do.” Um, no. Reviewing that horrible action, and then trying to bury it on a holiday weekend is the furthest thing from responsible you can be. They know that even though it’s their report, they’re going to get hammered over the debacle that they wrought, as well they should.

But hold on, he gets worse. Much worse.

Kirby said that Biden was very proud of what he had done, and then tries to hide behind the military in a completely shameful display.

REPORTER: "Does the president have any regrets about how this withdrawal was carried out?"

KIRBY: "The president is very proud…"

Shameful. pic.twitter.com/GBqqMybhCB

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 6, 2023

Proud of getting 13 Americans killed because of the botched way that Biden handled it? This is what his reaction was, something I don’t think anyone can ever forget when their bodies came back.

pic.twitter.com/M3Q5DrPwhj

— Kelkat (@Tweetytweeter63) April 6, 2023

The families excoriated him for what he did and how he dealt with them, focusing on his son, rather than their family members who had been killed.

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.

John Kirby blames Trump's Afghanistan withdrawal agreement in Afghanistan for Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal. pic.twitter.com/pDlQ6uJWAj

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 6, 2023

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.

Now given all that extra time you would think he could have gotten all our troops and our allies out safely, right? But Kirby is now saying it’s not their fault that they were caught short having done none of that in August when the country collapsed to the Taliban.

“No agency predicted a Taliban takeover in nine days,” Kirby said. “No agency predicted the rapid fleeing of President Ghani, who had indicated to us his intent to remain in Afghanistan up until he departed on the 15th of August. And, no agency predicted that the more than 300,000 trained and equipped Afghan National Security and Defense Forces would fail to fight for their country, especially after 20 years of American support.”

Again, this is nonsense. I’m not in the intelligence agencies and I was predicting that they needed to get our people and allies out in May. That’s not genius on my part—most people knew that, especially the allies who had worked with us who were fearful of being killed because their comrades were already being killed. I wrote a piece at the time, telling Biden he needed to get them out right away, but that he seemed willing to let them die because at that point there were still no evacuation plans.

The reporters noted something very important about this report.

“Nowhere in here does there appear to be any expression of accountability or mistake by the president himself or others. Is there any from what happened?” the reporter asked.

Kirby said that “The fact I’m up here talking to you about it [the withdrawal] shows how seriously the president felt about learning lessons from this withdrawal.”

Oh, Biden takes it seriously? Where’s the evidence of this? Who’s getting fired? When is he resigning for what he did here (not to mention all the other reasons why he should exit)?

But Fox’s Peter Doocy demanded answers. “Who’s going to get fired over this?” Doocy asked.

Kirby tried to deflect. “Peter, the purpose of the document that we’re putting out today is to sort of collate the chief reviews and findings of the agencies that did after-action review,” he said.

DOOCY: "Who's going to get fired over this?!"

KIRBY: "The purpose of it is not accountability." pic.twitter.com/uPl6O9LrVN

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 6, 2023

That’s when he delivered the line that perfectly described the Biden Administration, “The purpose of it is not accountability.” They never take accountability for anything; they’re always blaming someone else for their failures.

Doocy grilled him as to why Biden was “proud” of this debacle:

Spokesman John Kirby: "There's a lot to be proud of" on Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal.

"There was a lot that went right, and a lot of Afghans are now living better lives." pic.twitter.com/qwqmg4DZaP

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 6, 2023

Kirby insisted that there was “a lot to be proud of” and that a lot of Afghans were living “better lives.” Do you mean all those people who are now living under the boot of the Taliban?

Doocy wouldn’t let him go, ripping him apart.

DOOCY: "There were children being killed…there were people hanging off of Air Force jets that were leaving. And you're saying you guys are PROUD of the way that this mission was conducted?"

KIRBY: "You bet." pic.twitter.com/3tZETaMKdA

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 6, 2023

The reporters mentioned the chaos of the withdrawal which was part of what endangered people; it looked like Biden hadn’t planned anything and then even left the safety of our people up to the Taliban. There were a lot of lies that Kirby told, but his response to this one was particularly vile. He even denied that there was any chaos at all:

John Kirby on the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan:

"For all this talk of chaos, I just didn't see it!" pic.twitter.com/UYOkkZubq6

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 6, 2023

“For all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it,” he claimed.

Yikes, that’s again a complete denial of the reality that every American saw. Did he watch the people falling off the wheel wells of the airplanes to their deaths? Protecting the airport? They let our military get bombed with 13 Americans and more than 100 Afghans killed. They didn’t fully vet the people they threw on the planes and most of them weren’t even the allies who helped us. Tell the hundreds of Americans you left behind and lied about being there about the lack of chaos. Tell that to the thousands of allies who put their trust in us and were left behind. It’s this flat-out lying and denial of reality that caused Joe Biden’s poll numbers to drop from the point of the withdrawal and they’ve never recovered. As we noted today, CNN delivered him some dire news on his numbers and what Americans think of him.

Then Kirby claimed that we were on a “stronger strategic footing” because of the withdrawal and Trump not being in office, and that this helped them do a “worst case scenario planning on Ukraine.”

John Kirby says that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan makes it easier for the U.S. to support Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/vFUZXBIzNB

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 6, 2023

The horrible withdrawal told all our adversaries what a weak incompetent person we had at the helm and this is why we are now in a horrible strategic position with our adversaries’ saber-rattling and/or attacking people, including Ukraine. Yet, still, even when they’re supposed to be talking about what went wrong in Afghanistan, all they can think about is Ukraine. It’s just incredible.

When Kirby was asked about the billions in equipment that was left behind in Afghanistan, he blamed the Afghans and took no responsibility for that.

KIRBY: "This idea…is just LUDICROUS! That we left millions of dollars of stuff in Afghanistan?! We didn't!" pic.twitter.com/REstvHCKAj

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 6, 2023

“It is the Afghans who are responsible for the turnover of all that equipment,” he said. Um, no, when you knew there was likely to be a collapse if you couldn’t remove it, you should have destroyed it. That’s on you and now the Taliban are bragging about having all of that.

Taliban released a video of military equipment abandoned by the #Biden administration in #Afghanistan

In total, according to the most conservative estimates, the #Pentagon was unable to take out weapons and equipment worth $60 billion.
There's no accountability! pic.twitter.com/Mz39gCXYR0

— Arthur Morgan (@ArthurM40330824) March 30, 2023

Finally, the reporters asked when could they expect remarks from Biden on the report, now that he’s fled to Camp David. Kirby said he had “nothing on his schedule” to answer that.

Reporter: “When should we anticipate an opportunity for [Biden] to stand for our questions about the [Afghanistan] findings?”

Kirby: “I don’t have anything on his schedule to speak to.” pic.twitter.com/28Vz3SLZWJ

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 6, 2023

Probably when Biden finally gets around to visiting the folk in East Palestine.

This may just be the vilest set of lies from the Biden team.

I don’t have the pictures of the hundreds of Afghan allies who were left behind or who were killed because of the incompetency of Joe Biden, but I do have the pictures and the story I wrote about the 13 Americans. I want to end with some facts and the faces of the wonderful young people we lost. It’s shameful that Biden and his team take no accountability for anything, including losing these fine young people.

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

The Marines:
– Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska
– Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming
– Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah
– Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts
– Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California
– Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California
– Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana
– Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas
– Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri
– Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California
– Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California