On Tuesday afternoon, the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing with retired Generals Mark Milley and Frank McKenzie on the Biden administration’s deadly and disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, which included the murders of 13 American soldiers by Islamic terrorists at the Kabul airport.
In a cowardly move, CBS and NBC saw no reason to tell viewers about this push for accountability on their flagship newscasts on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The only broadcast network mention on one of the leading newscast’s came Tuesday on ABC’s World News Tonight with a measly 32-second brief from anchor David Muir.
“On Capitol Hill today, two former top military commanders were grilled before House lawmakers over the deadly U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. 13 U.S. Service members and 170 Afghan civilians were killed in a suicide bomb attack at the airport in Kabul, that was back in August of 2021,” Muir began.
Muir added both men “placed blame on the State Department for waiting too long to order evacuations” with Milley also saying “he doesn’t know the exact number of Americans or Afghans who helped the U.S. trying to escape the Taliban who were left behind.”
CBS thought they could hide it on one of their overnight/early morning shows, CBS Morning News (which often airs at 4:00 a.m.) (click “expand”):
ANNE-MARIE GREEN: Harsh criticism from two former U.S. generals over how the Biden administration handled the 2021 chaotic military withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan. Former Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley and U.S. Central Command retired General Frank McKenzie oversaw the evacuation as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. Well, yesterday they told a House committee the administration did not adequately plan for the evacuation and did not order it in time.
MILLEY: It was a pretty consistent assessment by me and other members of the uniformed military up to and including the Secretary that the withdrawal of the military forces and the contractors in the NATO forces that went with it would ultimately, as I said in my opening statement, to a general collapse of the NSA and the government.
GREEN: Thirteen U.S. service members were killed by a suicide bomber at Kabul’s airport in the final days of the war.
In contrast, multiple Fox News, NewsNation, Newsmax, and even liberal cable networks CNN and MSNBC acknowledged it.
For example, the Fox News Channel’s lead newscast, Special Report, had it as the second story on their rundown (after the legal wrangling over Texas’s immigration law).
Host Bret Baier called the “fiery House hearing” was “a difficult and contentious reexamination of President Biden’s U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan” with “[t]op military officials expressed their regret over the disastrous exit”.
Correspondent Aishah Hasnie had the story from the Hill and said both McKenzie and Milley “blast[ed] the Biden administration for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
“The generals telling lawmakers Afghanistan would not have collapsed if the White House had followed the Pentagon’s assessments to keep U.S. troops on the ground...They also blame the State Department for ordering an evacuation too late,” she added.
She went onto have more sound from the hearing, including how most Democrats callously saw no reason to even participate in this, showing little regard for American life. She also touched on the presence of Gold Star families at the hearing (click “expand”):
CONGRESSMAN MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): And that [decision by the State Department] was too little too late.
MILLEY: It was my judgment that it was far too little, far too late.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Blame Game; Democrats Say Failure Falls on Past Policy]
HASNIE: The few Democrats who attended the hearing say the failure lies in 20 years of American policy, including that of former President Trump, and they wondered why the generals even showed up today.
CONGRESSMAN GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): So, there’s not really anything new that was learned today because you’ve testified to it before.
MILLEY: I’ll leave that to you all to determine.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Arrest Aftermath; Gold Star Father Still Facing Charges]
HASNIE: Some loved ones of the 13 U.S. service members who died during the attack at Abbey Gate were also in the room like Steve Nikoui, who was arrested for shouting during President Biden State of the Union Address. [TO NIKOUI] Will those charges get dropped?
STEVE NIKOUI, GOLD STAR FATHER: I have no idea. No, no charges got dropped.
HASNIE [TO NIKOUI]: So, you’re still facing charges?
NIKOUI: Yeah.
HASNIE: Really? And nobody from the administration has tried to intervene or help?
Thankfully, Wednesday morning brought news that charges would, in fact, be dropped against Nikoui.
Instead of showing reverence for these fallen soldiers, Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News fretted the impending cutting down of a beloved cherry blossom tree in the Washington D.C. Tidal Basin due to seawall reconstruction (with climate change being blamed). And, on Wednesday’s CBS Mornings, the gang had not one but two segments with Lil Jon ahead of his meditation album.
