What Lloyd Austin *Wouldn’t* Say to Tom Cotton About Advisement on Afghanistan Troop Levels Spoke Volumes

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

As we previously reported this morning, there have been revelations galore at today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on last month’s Afghanistan debacle and the fallout from it.

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There are Americans still trapped in Afghanistan, which Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin confirmed in his testimony today, though exact or even approximate numbers aren’t being given at this time. There was also the stunning, on-the-record admission by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, CENTCOM Commander, that he did indeed advise President Biden to keep a small troop presence in Afghanistan, which is 100% contrary to what Biden said in interviews over the summer when asked about it.

McKenzie’s admission was followed up by what ultimately ended up being a confirmation of his remarks by Austin, who was grilled by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) as to whether or not senior military leadership urged Biden to keep some troops in Afghanistan beyond the August 31 deadline.

Watch below as Cotton pushes Austin for an answer, and how Austin hesitates for several seconds and then dodges the question, instead calling Biden an “honest and forthright man.” After pressed by Cotton again, Austin stated that “their input was received and considered by the president for sure but … as they [generals] just said they are not going to provide [to the committee] what they recommended in confidence” to the Commander in Chief.

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Cotton then tries to goad Austin into verbally confirming what McKenzie said about troops levels, playing devil’s advocate by suggesting maybe senior military officials didn’t advise the president on this matter after all, which Cotton knows would be an abject failure in military leadership — on top of all the other failures related to the horribly botched Afghanistan exit, if true:

As I’ve often said, when it comes to politicians and other public officials, it’s not always in what they say that we are told what we need to know, but rather in what they don’t. Austin could have answered Cotton’s questions with a simple yes or no answer, and then followed up with an explainer — but he chose not to do so. And in handling the questions the way he did — by obfuscating and deflecting instead of giving straight answers — he inadvertently confirmed what McKenzie said about advising Biden to maintain a small troop presence beyond August 31st.

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In other words, Biden’s generals and his own defense secretary confirmed today before the Senate Armed Services Committee what we already knew: Joe Biden lied and innocent people, including 13 U.S service members, died as a result of his and their incompetence.

I think at this point a convincing case could be made for Joe Biden’s impeachment as well as Lloyd Austin’s resignation (as my colleague Bonchie suggested earlier), but I’ll leave that up to readers to contemplate and debate.

Flashback: NBC News Reporter Triggers Leftists After Brutally on-Point Assessment About Afghanistan Legacy

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