Joe Biden is finally answering questions from the media about his debacle in Afghanistan, albeit in a carefully prepared for sit down with just one reporter.
Biden spoke to ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired on Thursday and his answers were rather interesting.
âBack in July, you said a Taliban takeover was highly unlikely. Was the intelligence wrong, or did you downplay it?â Stephanopoulos said to begin the interview.
âI think â there was no consensus. If you go back and look at the intelligence reports, they said that itâs more likely to be sometime by the end of the year. The idea that the tal â and then it goes further on, even as late as August. I think youâre gonna see â the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and others speaking about this later today,â he said.
Asked if he thought there was an intelligence failure he went back to blaming Donald Trump for making a deal.
âI hear people say, âWell, you had 2,500 folks in there and nothinâ was happening. You know, there wasnât any war,ââ he said.
âBut guess what? The fact was that the reason it wasnât happening is the last president negotiated a year earlier that heâd be out by May 1st and thatâ in return, thereâd be no attack on American forces. Thatâs what was done. Thatâs why nothing was happening. But the idea if I had said â I had a simple choice. If I had said, âWeâre gonna stay,â then weâd better prepare to put a whole hell of a lot more troops in,â he said.
But the biggest revelation from the interview was when he told Stephanopoulos that he could not recall military leaders telling him that he should keep a small force in Afghanistan, which the media reported.
âSo no one told â your military advisors did not tell you, âNo, we should just keep 2,500 troops. Itâs been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do thatâ?â the host said.
EXCLUSIVE: Asked about July comment that a Taliban takeover was âhighly unlikely,â Pres. @JoeBiden tells @GStephanopoulos, âthere was no consensusâ in the intelligence. âThey said it was more likely to be by the end of the year.â https://t.co/NmBEmVRw8M pic.twitter.com/LSXSC51ox8
— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 19, 2021
âNo. No one said that to me that I can recall. Look, George, the reason why itâs been stable for a year is because the last president said, âWeâre leaving. And hereâs the deal I wanna make with you, Taliban. Weâre agreeing to leave if you agree not to attack us between now and the time we leave on May the 1st,ââ he said.
âI got into office, George. Less than two months after I elected to office, I was sworn in, all of a sudden, I have a May 1 deadline. I have a May 1 deadline. I got one of two choices. Do I say weâre staying? And do you think we would not have to put a hell of a lot more troops? Bâ you know, we had hundredsâ we had tens of thousands of troops there before. Tens of thousands,â Biden said.
âDo you think we woulda â that we wouldâve just said, âNo problem. Donât worry about it, weâre not gonna attack anybody. Weâre okayâ? In the meantime, the Taliban was takinâ territory all throughout the country in the north and down in the south, in the Pashtun area,â he said.
He also said that regardless of Trumpâs deal he would have still removed troops from Afghanistan.
âI wouldâve tried to figure out how to withdraw those troops, yes, because look, George. There is no good time to leave Afghanistan. Fifteen years ago wouldâve been a problem, 15 years from now. The basic choice is am I gonna send your sons and your daughters to war in Afghanistan in perpetuity?â he said.
STEPHANOPOULOS: "Most intelligence analysis has predicted that Al-Qaeda would come back 18-24 months after a withdrawal of American troops… Could it be sooner?"
BIDEN: "It could be." pic.twitter.com/Ukc67AzUYC
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 19, 2021
Biden also said that the United States had no troops in Afghanistan which, as the RNC pointed out on Twitter, is inaccurate as there are around 900 US troops in Syria, as he said that Al Qaeda could make a comeback in Afghanistan.
Joe Biden: âWe donât have military in Syria." The U.S. has 900 troops. pic.twitter.com/zXywawGsD4
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 19, 2021
âAl Qaeda, ISIS, they metastasize. Thereâs a significantly greater threat to the United States from Syria. Thereâs a significantly greater threat from East Africa. Thereâs significant greater threat to other places in the world than it is from the mountains of Afghanistan. And we have maintained the ability to have an over-the-horizon capability to take them out. Weâreâ we donât have military in Syria to make sure that weâre gonna be protected,â he said.