Former CIA Officer Looks Back on Biden's July Speech: 'Most Infamous - and Devastating' - News Conference by a US President
Showing a far more combative attitude than the Afghan military, former CIA officer Bryan Dean White lashed out at President Joe Biden on Sunday after the Afghan government imploded when threatened by the Taliban with a decisive battle for Kabul.
“This may become the most infamous — and devastating — press conference ever held by an American President,” White tweeted about the July 8 event, including video of Biden insisting that Afghanistan would not simply collapse at the mere thought of a whiff of Taliban gunpowder.
This may become the most infamous — and devastating — press conference ever held by an American President. pic.twitter.com/j4kKwyPDVm
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) August 15, 2021
Al Jazeera Arabic is airing what is says is live video of Taliban fighters inside the presidential palace in Kabul pic.twitter.com/IGKwwnqQQH
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) August 15, 2021
On that day, after announcing America would leave Afghanistan by the end of August, Biden offered what the world now knows was a false hope that the Afghan government would battle without the U.S. propping it up.
Asked if a Taliban takeover was inevitable, Biden said, “No, it is not,” according to a July 8 White House transcript.
When asked why, he replied that “Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped — as well-equipped as any army in the world — and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable.”
Wright had more than a few choice things to say Sunday about Biden’s leadership.
Let Joe Biden sleep.
Whichever leader steps up in the next few days — delivering a fire & brimstone call to action for a better America — that person will capture the hopes and votes of a battered nation.
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) August 15, 2021
Last June, Joe Biden said you’d need fighter jets and nukes to defeat him.
Not true, America. Not true at all.
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) August 15, 2021
The GOP better have a war room up and ads running by tonight.
This is the moment to destroy the Biden Regime.
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) August 15, 2021
The Afghan Air Force didn’t take flight because — God help us — Joe Biden refused to let outside maintenance crews into Afghanistan, effectively grounding the fleet. pic.twitter.com/0L1wNSqGPa
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) August 15, 2021
Later in the news conference last month, Biden was asked about whether scenes recalling the panic-stricken flight from Saigon in 1975 might play out in Kabul.
“The Taliban is not the south — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable,” he said.
Saigon, US Embassy evacuation, 29 April, 1975.
Kabul, US Embassy evacuation, 15 August, 2021. pic.twitter.com/z1o7LHOXUD— Kanchan Gupta ?? (@KanchanGupta) August 15, 2021
After being briefed Sunday on the disaster unfolding in Kabul, where Americans scramble to flee as Afghan resistance, such as it was, collapsed, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the final chapter of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan “the worst outcome possible,” according to CNN.
“This is remnants of Vietnam, watching helicopters come off and fly by our embassy right now,” he said, according to what CNN said was “a GOP source on the call.”
46 years later, the United States once again is leaving the most vulnerable behind. Kabul is worse and than Saigon. The international community needs to urgently prioritize the conditions of women and girls in this crisis. ?
Saigon 1975 Kabul 2021 pic.twitter.com/6TG16sAAyh
— Thoại Ngô, PhD (he/him) (@thoaidngo) August 15, 2021
McCarthy said America’s flight will leave a trail of broken promises and shattered lives.
“I have anger. … For everyone who we promised we would protect, how are they ever going to get out of there as of today?” he said.
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