On Monday's Deadline: White House on MSNBC, frequent guest Matthew Dowd was again oozing praise for Joe Biden over the President's Afghanistan failures as the former ABC analyst also hyperbolically claimed that, like Afghanistan, America is also a "safe haven for terrorists."
He then lamented that some of the $2 trillion spent fighting terrorists in Afghanistan wasn't fought fighting terrorism in America instead as he also tied in the 1/6 Capitol riots.
Dowd observed:
But let's keep in mind the sacrifice was not only the men and women who served -- including my son and the others that we have talked to -- but the sacrifice of the American public to this. This has been $2 trillion that's been spent on a failed mission that could have been used for people's health care here -- that could have been used to fight terrorism here.
He then added: "I heard mentioned that we're worried about a safe haven for terrorists in Afghanistan. Well, we have a safe haven for terrorists in America right now that has grown over the last 10 years and metastasized and resulted in an insurrection in our U.S. Capitol in this."
And, on the same day that news broke that the Biden administration turned down a chance to control Kabul until the evacuation was complete, Dowd then pivoted to lavishing praise on Biden, and tried to put a positive spin on the President's Afghanistan debacle:
And I have to say, "Thank you, President Biden," in this for the first in four Presidents to make the hard decisions. Before it was the easy decisions. It was, honestly, the easy political decisions to not pull up and not make the decision and not be clear with the American public that this was failed from the start and was never going to be successful in this. It was a hard decision for President Biden to make, but it was the right decision. In the end, the implementation of the decision, he got out three times as many people -- evacuated three times as many people as almost every single observer said could be done two weeks ago -- three times as many as could be done two weeks ago.
He continued:
Yes, there's still work to be done. Yes, there's still people there. But we are out of a war we should have never been in, and we should begin to focus on what the American public wants us to focus on, which is all the things that's happening here, not the least of which is the fragile nature of our own democracy that's under attack here and the rising tide of white supremacist terrorists in America. That's the biggest problem we face today.
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MSNBC's Deadline: White House
August 30, 2021
5:25 p.m. Eastern
I have a slightly different take on this. I mean, yes, the sacrifice that's been done over the 20 years has been commendable, but let's keep in mind the sacrifice was not only the men and women who served -- including my son and the others that we have talked to -- but the sacrifice of the American public to this. This has been $2 trillion that's been spent on a failed mission that could have been used for people's health care here -- that could have been used to fight terrorism here. I heard mentioned that we're worried about a safe haven for terrorists in Afghanistan. Well, we have a safe haven for terrorists in America right now that has grown over the last 10 years and metastasized and resulted in an insurrection in our U.S. Capitol in this. For me today is, yes, but the sadness is moreover political decisions that have been made over the last 20 years that allowed us to be in this place where we lost thousands of men and women, and we lost trillions of dollars in the midst of this, and we're having to leave.
And I have to say, "Thank you, President Biden," in this for the first in four Presidents to make the hard decisions. Before it was the easy decisions. It was, honestly, the easy political decisions to not pull up and not make the decision and not be clear with the American public that this was failed from the start and was never going to be successful in this. It was a hard decision for President Biden to make, but it was the right decision. In the end, the implementation of the decision, he got out three times as many people -- evacuated three times as many people as almost every single observer said could be done two weeks ago -- three times as many as could be done two weeks ago.
Yes, there's still work to be done. Yes, there's still people there. But we are out of a war we should have never been in, and we should begin to focus on what the American public wants us to focus on, which is all the things that's happening here, not the least of which is the fragile nature of our own democracy that's under attack here and the rising tide of white supremacist terrorists in America. That's the biggest problem we face today.
And so I'm glad it is over. I'm glad the last troops came out. I'm happy for it. I'm sad that we were in this place to begin with, but thank God Joe Biden made the tough choices to get this done because it's what the American people wanted.
