During another White House press conference where he tried to gaslight Americans about his poor decision-making and planning in Afghanistan, President Biden was confronted by CBS senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe with a network poll that shows the public was questioning his competence and ability to be president.
After asking a question about whether or not he trusted the Taliban, O’Keefe prefaced “a new poll out today shows Americans wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan, but they disapprove of the way you've handled it.”
And given how harsh the poll was for the President, O’Keefe actually begged for Biden’s forgiveness: “The poll also found that based in part on what's transpired in the past week, a majority of Americans – forgive me, I'm just the messenger – no longer consider you to be competent, focused, or effective at the job.”
Biden’s response? To say he hadn’t seen the poll and then lecture the American people how he was right and they were wrong:
BIDEN: I haven't seen that poll.
O’KEEFE: It’s out there from CBS this morning. What would you say to those Americans who no longer believe that you can do the job?
BIDEN: Look, I had a basic decision to make. I either withdraw America from a 20-year war that, depending on who’s analysis you accept, cost us $150 million a day for 20 years or $300 million a day for 20 years. And you know I carry this card with me every day. And who, in fact, where we lost 2,448 Americans dead and 20,722 wounded. I either increase the number of forces we keep there and keep that going or I end the war. And I decided to end the war.
The poll definitely struck a nerve with Biden. When he got around to answering O’Keefe’s first question, he snapped at the journalist. “I don't trust anybody, including you. I love ya, but, you know, there's not a lot of people I trust,” he said.
He then went on a bizarre rant about how the Taliban needed to behave if they wanted to take care of their people and receive foreign aid:
Look, the Taliban has a -- Taliban has to make a fundamental decision. Is the Taliban going to attempt to be able to unite and provide for the well-being of the people of Afghanistan, which no one group has ever done since before -- for hundreds of years. And if it does, it's going to need everything from additional help in terms of economic assistance, trade, and a whole range of things.
So, Biden doesn’t trust the Taliban, but he’s open to the prospect of sending them American tax dollars as if all the free military equipment he gifted them with his withdraw wasn’t enough already?
Biden was also pressed multiple times on whether or not he planned to stay in Afghanistan to rescue Americans past his arbitrary August 31 deadline by Darlene Superville from The Associated Press, Mario Parker from Bloomberg, and Andrew Restuccia from The Wall Street Journal. But he was noncommittal.
He was also noncommittal to Andrea Shalal of Reuters’s question about if he would back sanctions against the Taliban during a G7 call on Tuesday.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
President Biden press conference via CNN
August 22, 2021
4:34:07 p.m. Eastern(…)
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: And I'll take a few questions. Darlene from the Associated Press.
DARLENE SUPERVILLE: Mr. President, thank you. We’re nine days away from the August 31 deadline. Will you extend that deadline or what is your thought process on extending the evacuation operations?
BIDEN: There's discussions going on among us and the military about extending. Our hope is we will not have to extend but there are going to be discussions, I suspect on how far along we are in the process. Mario Parker, Bloomberg.
MARIO PARKER: Thank you, Mr. President. Just to piggyback on the August 31st deadline. You told the G7 in Cornwall, you promised them support back in June. If they ask for a larger or longer American presence past August 31st deadline, what will you tell them on Tuesday?
BIDEN: I will tell them that we'll see what we can do. Look, we are working closely with the G7. I've spoken with most of the leaders of the G7. I'll be doing a conference with them, I think, Tuesday. I’m not certain. And we'll have that discussion. But we are -- we already have helped to get out diplomats from other countries. We've helped get out citizens from other countries and we'll continue to do that.
PARKER: Mr. President, it sounded like the -- you've extended operations into Kabul outside of the airport. Is that correct?
BIDEN: What I'm not going to do is talk about the tactical changes we're making to make sure we maintain as much security as we can. We have constantly -- how can I say it -- increased rational access to the airport where more folk can get there more safely. It's still a dangerous operation but I don't want to go into the detail while we're doing that. Andrew from The Wall Street Journal.
ANDREW RESTUCCIA: Thanks, Mr. President. Our reporting on the ground says that Afghans with the proper paperwork are still having trouble getting to the airport. Some said they feel abandoned by the U.S. The U.S. Embassy staff -- some U.S. Embassy staff that are Afghan haven't been able to get into the airport as well. Why isn't the U.S. doing more to allow Afghans into the airport to ensure access to the airport and are you still opposed to setting up an extended perimeter around the airport to help ease that access?
BIDEN: Number one, I think you're going to see they are going to get out. Number two, we have made a number of changes, including extending access around the airport and the safe zone. And we've done a number of things.
Again, I don't want to get into detail about, but the fact is that more and more of the groups we urgently want to get out of Afghanistan, starting with American citizens and the folks who worked in the embassies and personnel with our allies, as well as the Afghans who helped them and worked in those embassies, as well as those who helped them on the battlefield as well, we are working diligently to make sure we've increased the ability to get them out.
We've changed the gate operations and a whole range of things. And that's why we've been able to increase the number of people we're getting out.
RESTUCCIA: And will the Taliban agree to an extension past the August 31st? How you discussed that with them?
BIDEN: We've discussed a lot with the Taliban. They've been cooperative in extending some of the perimeter. That remains to be seen whether we ask that question. Ed, fire away. I don’t want you jumping over that one.
ED O’KEEFE: Following up on Andrew’s question. Because the United States is now negotiating with the Taliban over airport access and such, do you now trust them? And then as question from the public response. A new poll out today shows Americans wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan, but they disapprove of the way you've handled it. The poll also found that based in part on what's transpired in the past week, a majority of Americans – forgive me, I'm just the messenger – no longer consider you to be competent, focused, or effective at the job.”
BIDEN: I haven't seen that poll.
O’KEEFE: It’s out there from CBS this morning. What would you say to those Americans who no longer believe that you can do the job?
BIDEN: Look, I had a basic decision to make. I either withdraw America from a 20-year war that, depending on who’s analysis you accept, cost us $150 million a day for 20 years or $300 million a day for 20 years. And you know I carry this card with me every day. And who, in fact, where we lost 2,448 Americans dead and 20,722 wounded. I either increase the number of forces we keep there and keep that going or I end the war. And I decided to end the war.
(…)
O’KEEFE: On the question of the Taliban, though, do you trust them now? [In audible]
BIDEN: I don't trust anybody, including you. I love ya, but, you know, there's not a lot of people I trust.
Look, the Taliban has a -- Taliban has to make a fundamental decision. Is the Taliban going to attempt to be able to unite and provide for the well-being of the people of Afghanistan, which no one group has ever done since before -- for hundreds of years. And if it does, it's going to need everything from additional help in terms of economic assistance, trade, and a whole range of things.
(…)
BIDEN: So, thank you all so very much. Thank you.
[Crosstalk]
ANDREA SHALAL (Reuters): The British are calling for sanctions. They're going to discuss sanctions on Tuesday. Would you support sanctions against the Taliban under certain conditions? On Friday you mentioned partial conditions if they misbehave.
BIDEN: The answer is, yes. It depends on the conduct. Thank you.
