President Joe Biden faced backlash late on Thursday after he attacked the credibility of the U.S. Army following its report that blamed the Biden administration for the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan late last summer.
Biden made the remarks during an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt in response to a question about a report that was in The Washington Post, which reported earlier in the day:
Senior White House and State Department officials failed to grasp the Taliban’s steady advance on Afghanistan’s capital and resisted efforts by U.S. military leaders to prepare the evacuation of embassy personnel and Afghan allies weeks before Kabul’s fall, placing American troops ordered to carry out the withdrawal in greater danger, according to sworn testimony from multiple commanders involved in the operation.
“On the subject of American citizens, I have to draw your attention to that Army report, an investigative report that’s come out about the lead up to the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Holt said. “It interviewed many military officials and officers who said the administration ignored the handwriting on the wall. Another described trying to get folks in the Embassy ready to evacuate, encountering people who were essentially in denial of the situation.”
“Does any of that ring true to you?” Holt asked.
“No,” Biden claimed. “No, that’s not what I was told. … No. What I was told, no one told me that, look, there was no good time to get out. But if we had not gotten out, they acknowledged that we would have had to put a hell of a lot more troops back in. It wasn’t just 2,000, 4,000, we would have to significantly increase the number of troops, and we’re back in this this war of attrition. And, and there was no way we were ever going to unite Ukraine, excuse me, Iraq, Afghanistan. No way that was going to happen. And so this is a much wiser thing to do.”
“I just want to clarify, are you rejecting the conclusions or the the accounts that are in this Army report?” Holt asked.
“Yes, I am,” Biden claimed.
“So they’re not true?” Holt pressed.
“I’m rejecting them,” Biden claimed.
Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) responded to Biden’s remarks by writing in a tweet, “The only non-profane thing I can say is he has impressive message discipline on ‘defending the *concept* of withdrawal’ (objectively defensible, to which I agree) versus ‘defending the *execution* of the withdrawal’ (objectively indefensible, which still boils my blood).”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called Biden’s remarks “delusional.”
“Joe Biden tonight DENYING the facts laid out in a 2000 page Army report on the collapse of Afghanistan – and the White House’s total lack of preparation,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote on Twitter. “It is time Senate Democrats stopped the whitewash and held hearings. In public. Now.”
WATCH:
When confronted on the Army report of his disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, Biden refuses to take responsibility: "That's not what I was told." pic.twitter.com/ZFh9O3HN8z
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 11, 2022
TRANSCRIPT:
LESTER HOLT, NBC NEWS HOST: On the subject of American citizens, I have to draw your attention to that Army report, an investigative report that’s come out about the lead up to the withdrawal from Afghanistan. It interviewed many military officials and officers who said the administration ignored the handwriting on the wall. Another described trying to get folks in the Embassy ready to evacuate, encountering people who were essentially in denial of the situation. Does any of that ring true to you?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT: No. No, that’s not what I was told.
HOLT: That, you were told that the U.S. administration officials were prepared, they knew it was time to get out?
BIDEN: No. What I was told, no one told me that, look, there was no good time to get out. But if we had not gotten out, they acknowledged that we would have had to put a hell of a lot more troops back in. It wasn’t just 2,000, 4,000, we would have to significantly increase the number of troops, and we’re back in this this war of attrition. And, and there was no way we were ever going to unite Ukraine, excuse me, Iraq, Afghanistan. No way that was going to happen. And so this is a much wiser thing to do.
HOLT: I just want to clarify, are you rejecting the conclusions or the the accounts that are in this Army report?
BIDEN: Yes, I am.
HOLT: So they’re not true?
BIDEN: I’m rejecting them.