On Sunday’s episode of CNN’s State of the Union, anchor Jake Tapper ripped into President Joe Biden for refusing to accept responsibility for the disastrous troop withdrawal in Afghanistan which killed thirteen American soldiers, including Ryan Knauss.
“It's difficult to overstate how insulting Biden’s sweeping rejection is to so many service members and veterans, given the full content of the 2,000 pages of documents in this U.S. Army investigation which CNN has also obtained.” Tapper said at the end of Sunday’s State of the Union regarding declassified documents from the U.S. Army investigation into the failed U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In an interview with Lester Holt on Thursday, Biden raised doubts about the investigation’s findings. Referencing those comments from Biden, Tapper said “Many accounts were from troops on the ground at the gates near the canal around the airport, non-commissioned officers, junior officers, Joes, people with little political motivation to lie and heavy legal and moral obligation to tell the truth in sworn statements.”
Tapper continued admonishing Biden, admitting “I don't doubt President Biden cares, but I do not understand why he would not manifest that care into taking this investigation more seriously, absorbing the tragic details, contemplating the obvious failures of his administration. Failures that cost lives” Tapper railed. “Biden always bristles at this because he feels confident that ending the war in Afghanistan was the right decision, but that's not the question at hand. It's not whether, but how the war ended. And what that means to the people who were there when it did finally end."
Regarding Biden’s denials of the investigation Tapper said “No part of these military interviews ring true because that's not what I was told? If this was not what you were told, then what was?"
Tapper, like most Americans, isn't taking Biden’s insistence that he cares at face value, he wants proof: “Don't you have an obligation to Ryan Knauss' family, to his grieving mother? Isn't that how you demonstrate how much you care? Otherwise isn't it just words?”
To read the relevant transcript of this segment click expand:
CNN’s State of the Union
2/13/2022
9:49:12 AMJAKE TAPPER: It's difficult to overstate how insulting Biden’s sweeping rejection is to so many service members and veterans, given the full content of the 2,000 pages of documents in this U.S. Army investigation which CNN has also obtained. Many accounts were from troops on the ground at the gates near the canal around the airport, non-commissioned officers, junior officers, Joes, people with little political motivation to lie and heavy legal and moral obligation to tell the truth in sworn statements. People like the men and women that Biden visited with last November at Fort Bragg.
(...)
TAPPER: I don't doubt President Biden cares, but I do not understand why he would not manifest that care into taking this investigation more seriously, absorbing the tragic details, contemplating the obvious failures of his administration. Failures that cost lives. Biden always bristles at this because he feels confident that ending the war in Afghanistan was the right decision, but that's not the question at hand. It's not whether, but how the war ended. And what that means to the people who were there when it did finally end. No part of these military interviews ring true because that's not what I was told? If this was not what you were told, then what was? And don't you have an obligation, sir, to be told? Don't you have an obligation to Ryan Knauss' family, to his grieving mother?
(...)
TAPPER: Isn't that how you demonstrate how much you care? Otherwise isn't it just words?
