The MSM has been surprisingly unsparing in its criticism of President Biden's mishandling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Earlier this week, for example, we noted NBC's Richard Engel giving a scathing evaluation of the fiasco, approvingly quoting a military source who said the situation is "100-times worse than Saigon."
This morning, it was CNN's turn. New Day aired a report by correspondent Clarissa Ward from the Kabul airport. There, in addition to being roughly confronted by Taliban fighters, she was beseeched for advice by Afghans who had served as translators to US forces, desperate to get into the airport and out of the country.
After that piece ran, Ward was interviewed live by co-host Brianna Keilar. Commenting on Biden's interview of yesterday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News in which Biden refused to acknowledge failure, Ward described heart-rending scenes in which parents were throwing their babies over razor wire at the airport, hoping to get them to safety.
Concluded Ward:
"If this isn’t failure, what does failure look like exactly?"
Keilar concurred: "I think it's a very, very good point. Clearly this not what the U.S. planned for, Clarissa."
Here's some of that exchange:
CLARISSA WARD: I can’t even fathom what level of desperation an individual needs to be at where they are literally throwing their baby over razor wire to try to get them to safety. But I think what that very clearly speaks to is the panic. The lack of clear information. The rumor mill is in overdrive. There’s hysteria. You have Taliban fighters with whips, with guns. You have U.S. and U.K. soldiers who are not allowing people in. You have mixed messaging coming through about what kind of paperwork you need and how you can get on a flight and where you can go. I mean, it is just an absolute mess.
And we heard President Biden say yesterday in his comments to ABC News that this is not a failure. And I think a lot of people outside that airport, particularly those taking the kinds of extreme actions we’re just talking about, would like to know: if this isn’t failure, what does failure look like exactly?
BRIANN KEILAR: Yeah, I think it's a very, very good point.
Ward put the words as to what failure looks like if not this in the mouths of the desperate people at the airport. But the passionate way that she spoke those words, her face contorted in emotion [see screencap] made it clear that she was also expressing her own opinion. In her own words, Ward had also described the situation as an "absolute mess."
Later in the show, New Day rolled a clip from Biden's interview with Stephanopoulos. When pressed as to whether his military advisers had told him to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, Biden says, "no one said that to me that I can recall."
The generous interpretation of Biden's failure to recall would be that he was simply trying to evade Stephanopoulos's tough question. But for someone whose mental acuity is already in considerable doubt, it was at best an unfortunate way for Biden to phrase things.
CNN's Clarissa Ward asking, despite Biden's denial of failure in Afghanistan, what failure would look like if not this, was sponsored in part by Citi, IHOP, Skechers, and T-Mobile.
Here's the transcript. Click "expand" to read more.
CNN
New Day
8/19/21
6:01 am EDTCLARISSA WARD: We have come to Kabul’s airport to see the gauntlet people must pass through to fly out. You can hear gunshots every couple minutes.
Quickly we are accosted by an angry Taliban fighter. Can I ask you a question? Excuse me. Cover my face? Okay. Cover my face? What is this — what is this [points to truncheon] What do you have?
He told me to cover my face but he doesn’t want to comment on that truncheon he’s carrying.
MAN IN STREET: How you can enter the base?
WARD: How you can enter the base?
MAN: Yeah.
. . .
WARD: Others crowd around us to show their documents.You were a translator? So they're saying they all worked at American camps as translators for the Americans and they can’t get into that airport.
. . .
Taliban fighters are a little upset with us. Let’s keep going. We decide to leave and head for our car. The fighter takes the safety off his AK-47 and pushes through the crowd.
CNN CREW MEMBER: Stay behind him! Stay behind him!
WARD: You can see that some of these Taliban fighters, they're just hopped up on adrenaline or I don’t know what. It’s a very dicey situation.
Suddenly, two other Taliban charge towards us. You can see their rifle butt raised to strike producer Brent Swails. When the fighters are told we have permission to report, they lower their weapons and let us pass.
. . .
WARD: Our British colleagues who are staying in the area where the British paratroopers are, have heard and spoken directly to British soldiers who say that they have seen people so desperate that they are passing and throwing their babies over the razor wire to try to get them into safety.
I mean, I can’t even fathom what level of desperation an individual needs to be at where they are literally throwing their baby over razor wire to try to get them to safety. But I think what that very clearly speaks to is the panic. The lack of clear information. The rumor mill is in overdrive. There’s hysteria. You have Taliban fighters with whips, with guns. You have U.S. and U.K. soldiers who are not allowing people in. You have mixed messaging coming through about what kind of paperwork you need and how you can get on a flight and where you can go. I mean, it is just an absolute mess.
And we heard President Biden say yesterday in his comments to ABC News that this is not a failure. And I think a lot of people outside that airport, particularly those taking the kinds of extreme actions we’re just talking about, would like to know: if this isn’t failure, what does failure look like exactly?
BRIANN KEILAR: Yeah, I think it's a very, very good point. Clearly, this not what the U.S. planned for, Clarissa.
