President Joe Biden’s hasty withdrawal out of Afghanistan has gone so disastrously that even liberal hacks like George Stephanopoulos are taking him to task. In a lengthy interview this morning, the Good Morning America anchor repeatedly pressed the president on his administration’s “failure” in Afghanistan. However, despite some misleading statements, Biden was saved from the eager media fact-checks his predecessor was frequently exposed to.
From the start, Stephanopoulos grilled the president on seeming to defy both intelligence and top military leaders with his decision:
STEPHANOPOULOS: But your top military advisers warned against withdrawing on this time line, they wanted you to keep about 2500 troops.
BIDEN: No, they didn't. It was split. That wasn’t true. That wasn't true.
STEPHANOPOULOS: They didn't tell you they wanted troops to stay?
BIDEN: No, not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a time frame-- all troops, they didn't argue against that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So no one told -- your military advisers did not tell you, no, we should just keep 2500 troops, it's been a stable situation for the last several years, we can do that, we can continue to do that?
BIDEN: No, no one said that to me that I can recall...
As Biden repeatedly floundered, denying anyone had knowledge this would happen, the ABC journalist even cited his Republican critics, before blasting the decision as a “failure:”
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator McConnell said it was predictable the Taliban was going to take over.
BIDEN: Well by the end of the year he said that was a real possibility. No one said it would take over then when asked.
STEPHANOPOULOS: When you look at what happened over the past week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution or judgment?
Later, he pressed Biden again on to promise to make sure every American, and our Afghan allies, were safely evacuated (which you can read in the transcript below). He also demanded the defiant president explain to Americans on the anniversary of 9/11 that "The Taliban are going to be ruling Afghanistan like they were when our country was attacked."
But along the way, Biden made some startling and false claims which Stephanopoulos chose to not comment on or fact-check, such as the following:
“We don’t have military in Syria.”
“Look, no one’s being killed right now [knocks on wood].”
“We have control of the airport now.”
‘I'm not sure I would have predicted, George, nor would you or anyone else that when we decided to leave that they'd provide safe passage for Americans to get out.”
It was even more unusual for Stephanopoulos to not fact-check Biden on the supposedly safe situation, when just a few minutes later in his report from Kabul, correspondent Ian Pannell reported on the heartbreaking scenes and real mortal danger Americans and Afghans are in:
This morning, anguish and agony as 15,000 Americans and many more Afghans try to escape Kabul. Reports of more than a dozen injured in the crush at the airport. The Taliban beating the crowds. Fighters firing multiple rifle shots in the air to frighten and disperse people…
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Read the transcript below:
Good Morning America
8/19/21
…
STEPHANOPOULOS: You didn't put a timeline out when you said it was highly unlikely. You just said flat out it's highly unlikely the Taliban would take over.
BIDEN: Yeah. Well, the question was whether or not it -- the idea that the Taliban would take over was premised on the notion that the -- somehow the 300,000 troops we had trained and equipped was just going to collapse, they were going to give up. I don't think anybody anticipated that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator McConnell said it was predictable the Taliban was going to take over.
BIDEN: Well by the end of the year he said that was a real possibility. No one said it would take over then when asked.
STEPHANOPOULOS: When you look at what happened over the past week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution or judgment?
BIDEN: Look, I don't think it was a fail -- look it was a simple choice, George. When the Taliban -- let me back -- put it another way. When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government get into a plane and taking off and going to another country, when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained up to 300,000 of them just leaving their equipment and taking off, that was, you know, I'm not -- that's what happened. That's simply what happened so the question was in the beginning the threshold question was, do we commit to leave within the time frame that was set, extended it to September 1st or do we put significantly more troops in? I hear people say, well, you had 2500 folks in there and nothing was happening. You know, there wasn't any war but guess what, the fact was that the reason it wasn't happening is the last president negotiated a year earlier that he'd be out by May 1st and that the return, there would be no attack on American forces. That's what was done. That's why nothing was happening. But the idea if I had said, I had a simple choice, if I said we're going to stay then we better put a hell of a lot more troops--
STEPHANOPOULOS: But your top military advisers warned against withdrawing on this time line, they wanted you to keep about 2500 troops.
BIDEN: No, they didn't. It was split. That wasn’t true. That wasn't true.
STEPHANOPOULOS: They didn't tell you they wanted troops to stay?
BIDEN: No, not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a time frame-- all troops, they didn't argue against that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So no one told -- your military advisers did not tell you, no, we should just keep 2500 troops, it's been a stable situation for the last several years, we can do that, we can continue to do that?
BIDEN: No, no one said that to me that I can recall. Look, George, the reason why it's been stable for a year is because the last president said we're leaving and here's the deal I want to make with you, Taliban. We're agreeing to leave if you agree not to attack us between now and the time we leave on May the 1st. Less than two months after I was elected to office, sworn in, all of a sudden I have a May 1 deadline. I have a May 1 deadline. I have one or two choices. Do I say we're staying and do you think we would not have to put a hell of a lot more troops? We had hundreds--we had tens of thousands of troops there before. Tens of thousands. Do you think they would have said, no problem? Don't worry about it. We're not going to attack anybody. We’re ok. In the meantime, the Taliban was taking territory all throughout the country in the north and down in the south.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So would you have withdrawn troops like this even if President Trump had not made that deal with the Taliban?
BIDEN: I would have tried to figure out how to withdraw those troops, yes, because, look, George, there is no good time to leave Afghanistan. 15 years ago it would have been a problem, 15 years from now, the basic choice is, am I going to send your sons and your daughters to war in Afghanistan, in Afghanistan in perpetuity? No one can name for me a time when this would end and what constitutes defeat of the Taliban? What constitutes defeat? Would we have left then -- let's say they surrender like before, okay, do we leave then? Do you think anybody -- the same people would have said, no, good time to go? We spent over a trillion dollars, George, 20 years. There was no good time to leave.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But if there's no good time if you know you're going to have to leave eventually why not have everything in place to make sure Americans get out, to make sure our Afghan allies get out so we don't have these chaotic scenes in Kabul?
BIDEN: Number one, as you know, the intelligence community did not say back in June or July that, in fact, this was going to collapse like it did. Number one.
STEPHANOPOULOS: They thought the Taliban would take over but not this quickly.
BIDEN: But not this quickly, not even close. We had already issued several thousand passports to the SIVs, the translators when I came into office before we had negotiated getting out at the end of -- August, secondly, we were in a position where what we did was we took precautions. That's why I authorized that there be 6,000 American troops to flow in to accommodate this exit, number one and, number two, provided all that aircraft in the gulf to get people out. We pre-positioned all of that, anticipated that. Now, granted it took two days to take control of the airport. We have control of the airport now.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Still a lot of pandemonium outside the airport.
BIDEN: Oh, there is but, look, but no one is being killed right now, [knocks on wood] God forgive me if I'm wrong about that but no one is being killed right now. People -- we got a thousand -- somewhat 1200 out yesterday, a couple thousand a day and it's increasing. We're going to get those people out.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We've all seen the pictures. We've seen those hundreds of people packed in a C-17. We've seen Afghans falling --...
…
STEPHANOPOULOS: For you that was always part of the decision.
BIDEN: Yes, now exactly what happened is not priced in but I knew that they're going to have an enormous -- look, one of the things we didn't know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out, what they would do.
STEPHANOPOULOS: All troops are supposed to be out by August 31st even if Americans and our Afghan allies are still trying to get out? They're going to leave?
BIDEN: We're going to do everything in our power to get all Americans out and our allies out.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Does that mean troops will stay beyond August 31st if necessary.
BIDEN: Depends on where we are and whether we can get -- ramp these numbers up to 5,000 to 7,000 a day coming out. If that's the case they'll all be out.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Because we've got like 10,000 to 15,000 Americans in the country right now, right? Are you committed to making sure the troops stay until every American who wants to be out is out?
BIDEN: Yes, yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How about our Afghan allies, does the commitment hold for them as well.
BIDEN: The commitment holds to get everyone out that, in fact, we can get out and everyone that should come out and that's the objective. That's what we're doing now. That's the path we're on and I think we'll get there.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So Americans should understand troops might have to be there beyond August 31st.
BIDEN: No Americans got to understand we’ll be out of there before August 31.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But if we don’t?
BIDEN: If we don’t we'll determine at the time who is left.
STEPHANOPOULOS: ….And?
BIDEN: And if there are American forces--- if there's American citizens left we'll stay till we get them all out.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well There was the commitment right there. We're going to stay until all Americans are out. You know, there are a lot of Americans right now who are outside of Kabul. They're in a much more desperate situation. I should make one other point.
You know, As the president was pushing back against the intelligence, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff at the same time was saying the same thing, it is a united front now among the top military leaders and the president that the intelligence did not say that Kabul would fall this quickly. They thought it would fall, just not this quickly.
ROBERTS: He is not backing down on that decision he made and I know we'll have more in the next half hour of your interview.
…
STEPHANOPOULOS: All right, but right now we’re going to get more of my exclusive interview with President Biden. We dug into what happens now in Afghanistan since the Taliban are back in charge 20 years after the United States kicked them out. How we will counter any possible threats and whether he thinks the Taliban has changed.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What happens now in Afghanistan? Do you believe the Taliban have changed?
BIDEN No, I think -- let me put this way, I think they're going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government? I'm not sure they do. But, look, they have --
STEPHANOPOULOS: They care about their beliefs more.
BIDEN: Well, they do but they also care about whether they have food to eat, whether they have an income that can make any money and run an economy, they care about whether or not they can hold together the society that they, in fact, say they care so much about. I'm not counting on any of that but that is part of what I think is going on right now in terms of I'm not sure I would have predicted, George, nor would you or anyone else that when we decided to leave that they'd provide safe passage for Americans to get out.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Beyond Americans what do we owe the Afghans who are left behind particularly Afghan women facing the prospect of subjugation again?
BIDEN: As many as we can get out, we should. For example, I had a meeting today for a couple hours in the situation room just below here, and there were Afghan women outside the gate. I told them get them on the plane, get them out. Get them out. Get their families out if you can. But here's the deal, George, the idea that we're able to deal with the rights of women around the world by military force is not rational, not rational. Look what's happening to the uighurs and other parts of the world, look what’s happening in the Congo. There are a lot of places where women are being subjugated. The way to deal with it is not a military invasion is putting economic, diplomatic and international pressure on them to change their behavior.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the threat to the United States. Most intelligence analyses predicted Al Qaeda would come back 18 to 24 months after withdrawal of American troops. Is that analysis now being revised? Could it be sooner?
BIDEN: It could be but, look, here's the deal, Al Qaeda and ISIS they’ve metastasized. There is a significantly greater threat to the United States from Syria, there's a significant greater threat from east Africa. There's a 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. We don't have military in Syria to make sure that we’re going to be protected --
STEPHANOPOULOS: You're confident we'll have that in Afghanistan?
BIDEN: Yeah, I'm confident we'll have the overriding capability, yes. The deal is the threat from Al Qaeda and their associate organizations is greater in other parts of the world to the United States than it is from Afghanistan.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And that tells you that it's safe to leave?
BIDEN: No, that tells me that we should be focusing on where the threat is the greatest and the idea we can continue to spend a trillion dollars and have tens of thousands of American forces in Afghanistan when we have north Africa and western Africa, the idea we can do that and ignore those looming problems, growing problems is not rational.
STEPHANOPOULOS: In a couple of weeks we’re all going to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The Taliban are going to be ruling Afghanistan like they were when our country was attacked. How do you explain that to the American people?
BIDEN: Not true. It's not true. It’s not going to look just like they were when we were attacked. There was a guy named Osama Bin Laden still alive and well. They were organized in a big way that they had significant help from other parts of the world. We went there for two reason, George, two reasons, one, to get Bin Laden and, two, to wipe out as best we could and we did the Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We did it. Then what happened? It began to morph into the notion that instead of having a counterterrorism capability to have small forces in air or in the region to be able to take on Al Qaeda if it tried to reconstitute, we decided to engage in nation building, in nation building. That never made any sense to me.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Sounds like you think we should have gotten out a long time ago.
BIDEN: We should have.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And accept the idea that it was going to be messy no matter what?
BIDEN: Well, what would be messy? If we had gotten out a long time ago, getting out would be messy no matter when it occurred.
[back to live]
STEPHANOPOULOS: We have our chief global affairs anchor Martha Raddatz, for more on this. One thing that's very clear, the president as we have been talking about admitted no mistakes yesterday but he and the military leader yesterday really pushed back on this idea that they ignored any intelligence warnings about the Taliban takeover.
MARTHA RADDATZ: They sure did and they will say there were warnings about a Taliban takeover but later in the year and after all the U.S. military was out. They were adamant yesterday, chairman Milley said nobody, nobody predicted in their 17 intelligence agencies, no one predicted it could happen as fast as it has happened. The intelligence community has been defensive about this in the last week or so saying, yes, we said it could happen rapidly, but they made very clear that rapidly did not mean as fast as it happened, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Martha, the president also made this promise yesterday for the first time that American troops would stay as long as it takes to get all Americans out. Any idea from the military about how long that is going to take?
MARTHA RADDATZ: Well you just look at the numbers every day and some of those planes aren't full. Some are only half full. I think yesterday there were fewer than 2,000 who got out and they want about 9,000 a day. So you can do the math. If that stays, they're going to be there longer than August 31st and until the state department can get those people somehow through the gates of Kabul airport and into those planes, the military can take them as soon as they get into those fields, then that is going to be a lengthy process.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But the president more equivocal on whether we'd stay as long as it takes to get our Afghan allies out of Afghanistan.
RADDATZ: He certainly did not commit to that. He was very vague about that, George, as you know, and those are the people, those are the people who are so desperate. You have heard from all of us who know people there in Afghanistan, how desperate they are. My phone is filling up with -- asking for help to try to get interpreters out. Those are the people in the most danger right now, George, and who need to get out desperately.
STEPHANOPOULOS: They certainly do. Martha Raddatz thanks very much.
ROBIN ROBERTS: People helping the U.S. For the last 20 years.
