On Friday’s broadcast of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce pointed out that while the Biden administration puts a lot of the blame for the withdrawal from Afghanistan on the Trump administration, the White House has and continues to defend how the withdrawal went.
Bruce stated, “The White House now concedes that they should have acted sooner, but this long-awaited report does not explicitly say that mistakes were made. And when I’ve asked repeatedly, the White House won’t say if the president has any regrets now, just that lessons were learned. And they are putting much of the blame for this withdrawal on the Trump administration.”
She added, “This morning, the White House is defending the chaotic end to America’s longest war, acknowledging, after scenes like…thousands rushing to flee Kabul, and the attack at the airport that killed thirteen U.S. servicemembers, that the U.S. should have started the evacuation sooner. But the White House is also pinning much of the blame for the disastrous withdrawal on the Trump administration, arguing their hands were tied by Trump’s deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops by the spring of 2021.”
Bruce pointed out that Biden called the Afghanistan evacuation an “extraordinary success” and stated that the White House is “still defending it now.” She then played a clip of White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby denying that there was “chaos” in the country.
She concluded, “Now, pressed on this, the White House is clear, despite pointing the finger and blaming the Trump administration for much of this, they say, ultimately, President Biden is commander-in-chief and he does bear responsibility.”
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