By the Republican National Committee

TWO YEARS AFTER THE U.S. LEFT AFGHANISTAN, BIDEN’S FAILURES HAVEN’T BEEN FORGOTTEN

• Today marks two years since the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was evacuated and the capital fell to the Taliban.
  • The last U.S. plane left the country just 15 days later.
• Since then, the Biden administration has repeatedly lied to the American people and failed to explain their preparations for the withdrawal.
  • Biden promised a withdrawal that would be conducted “responsibly, deliberately, and safely” — instead, Biden left behind billions in U.S. military equipment for terrorists, the Taliban took over the country in just days, and 13 U.S. servicemembers were killed.
• Gold Star families of the heroes killed during Biden’s botched withdrawal are demanding answers and accountability.
• Instead, the Biden administration has attempted to brush off and downplay their Afghanistan disaster.
  • As part of a news dump before Easter this year, the Biden administration finally released a “watered-down, neutered” after-action report on the withdrawal of Afghanistan.
  • Then, the administration again “seemingly tried to bury” a declassified version of this report by releasing it late on a Friday before the long July 4th weekend.
  • Despite delaying the release for months, then repeatedly dumping versions of it on holiday weekends, the Biden administration claims to have been “incredibly transparent” on the after-action report.
• Just this week, new reports have revealed that the Biden administration missed two chances to neutralize the terrorist network behind the Kabul Airport suicide attack that killed 13 troops at Abbey Gate.
• In the years since the withdrawal, the Biden administration has provided more than $2.35 billion in taxpayer dollars to the Taliban government that took control of the country in 2021.
• The American people remember the lies Biden and his administration told them over and over again, even if Biden refuses to admit the truth.

BIDEN REPEATEDLY PROMISED THE U.S. WOULD NOT HAVE A CHAOTIC EXIT

• On August 15th, Kabul and the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan were evacuated as chaos erupted in the city.
  • The world saw horrifying images as desperate Afghans clung to U.S. planes as they tried to flee the Taliban.
• As the U.S. Embassy was evacuated, the Taliban took over the Bagram Airfield prison that housed 5,000 inmates, some of whom were Al Qaeda and Taliban members. 
  • The Biden administration quietly abandoned the air base just weeks earlier.
• The Biden administration repeatedly lied to the American people, promising us that the exit from Afghanistan would be done safely and responsibly.
  • In April, Biden promised “we will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit” and “we’ll do it responsibility, deliberately, and safely.” 
  • In February, Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said “no matter what” the U.S. would not undertake a “hasty or disorderly withdrawal,” later pledging it would be done “safely,” “orderly,” and “deliberately.”
  • In March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the administration would bring “a responsible end to the conflict, to remove our troops from harm’s way, and to ensure that Afghanistan can never again become a haven for terrorists.”
  • In June, Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said the ongoing withdrawal of military forces was “safe,” “orderly,” and “efficient.”
  • In June, Blinken said the withdrawal would not lead to “some immediate deterioration in the situation.”
• As the country was collapsing, Biden falsely claimed it “wasn’t true” that his military advisors warned against pulling out completely.
• Biden justified the rushed withdrawal by saying, “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with Al Qaeda gone?”
  • However, Al Qaeda is “actively” using Afghanistan as a safe haven to “plot and plan attacks against American interests and the American homeland.”

BIDEN PLEDGED THE U.S. EMBASSY WOULD NOT BE ABANDONED

• Leading up to the withdrawal, the Biden administration repeatedly told Americans there was no imminent threat to Kabul or the U.S. Embassy.
  • In June, Blinken pledged, “We are staying, the embassy [in Kabul] is staying.”
  • In July, Biden said, “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
  • In July, Biden said, there would be “no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof,” like what happened in Vietnam, but that evacuation is exactly what happened.  
  • Less than 48 hours before the fall of Kabul, Kirby said, “There is no intention right now to close the embassy … The situation in Kabul is calm right now.”
• After Kabul fell to the Taliban, the airport was overrun with thousands of people trying to escape, only to be entirely abandoned by the U.S. by August 31^st.
  • The airport was overrun even though Biden officials had repeatedly said they knew the importance of a “secure, operational airport.”
  • In July, Austin said a “major component of sustaining a robust diplomatic presence in Kabul is to maintain a functioning and secure airport in Kabul.”
  • In August, Biden State Department Spokesman Ned Price said that the Kabul airport “is integral to our ability to have a functioning diplomatic presence on the ground.”

BIDEN REPEATEDLY SAID AFGHANISTAN WAS NOT IN DANGER OF COLLAPSE

• Biden falsely claimed that “the intelligence community did not say back in June or July that, in fact, [Afghanistan] was gonna collapse like it did.”
  • Biden received intelligence reports in July warning of a “potential domino effect throughout Afghanistan should the United States withdraw its troops.”
  • All the way back in March, Blinken told the Afghan president that he was “concerned that the security situation will worsen and the Taliban could make rapid territorial gains.”
  • According to dissent cables released in 2023, diplomats working for the American Embassy in Afghanistan warned the Biden administration that Afghanistan would fall if the U.S. withdrew, weeks before the government collapsed.
• The White House downplayed the risk of Kabul’s collapse to the American people.
  • Biden said Afghan leaders had “the capacity to be able to sustain [their] government,” and it was “not true” that the intelligence community had assessed that the “Afghan government will likely collapse.”
  • On August 11th, just four days before Kabul fell, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that “no particular outcome, in our view, is inevitable” when asked if “the entire Afghan government could collapse in as little as 90 days.”
• After the Taliban took over Kabul, Biden blamed Afghan leaders and the Afghan military for collapsing “without trying to fight.”
  • Biden falsely claimed that nobody “anticipated that” the “300,000” Afghan troops were just going to “collapse” and “give up.”

BIDEN PROMISED TO PROTECT AMERICAN CITIZENS AND OUR AFGHAN ALLIES; HE LIED

• Biden broke his promise to get all Americans out of Afghanistan before pulling our troops out.
  • In August, Biden said, “if there are American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out.” 
  • Two days later, Biden doubled down, saying, “any American who wants to come home, we will get you home.”
  • Biden left hundreds of Americans stranded behind enemy lines for months and failed to protect American citizens from becoming hostages of the Taliban. 
• Biden’s disastrous withdrawal led to the death of 13 U.S. servicemembers and at least 170 Afghans in a terrorist attack.
  • Then when Biden promised to “hunt…down” those responsible, he bombed civilians
• In April, Blinken said the administration had a “commitment” to America’s Afghan allies, promising to relocate them before withdrawing.
  • Thousands of Afghans who put their lives on the line to assist the U.S. were left behind, with the Biden administration reportedly giving the Taliban what is essentially a kill list with names of U.S. citizens and our allies.

DESPITE ONE OF THE WORST FOREIGN POLICY DISASTERS IN U.S. HISTORY, BIDEN SAID HE HAS NO REGRETS

• Biden has never taken responsibility for his exit, saying he makes “no apologies” and even claims that his deadly withdrawal was a success.
  • Biden: “I do not regret my decision to end America’s warfighting in Afghanistan.”
  • Biden has never backtracked on that claim despite the death of 13 U.S. servicemembers, Afghanistan’s worsening humanitarian crisis under the Taliban, and the danger to U.S. national security.
  • Biden blamed the previous administration for his disastrous withdrawal despite first bragging in April and July that the manner of the withdrawal was his decision.
  • In June, 2023, Biden denied that mistakes were made during the Afghanistan withdrawal and claimed that he was “right.”
• As recently as last week, the Biden administration lauded the botched withdrawal as “the correct policy choice.”
• Meanwhile, Gold Star families are demanding answers and accountability from the Biden administration.
  • Kelly Barnett, whose son, Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, was killed in the withdrawal: Biden “needs to be a grown man. He needs to come out and say, ‘Yeah, I made a mistake … I was looking for a photo op, and I messed up.’”
  • Christina Shamblin, mother-in-law of fallen Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee: “When our leaders, including our secretary of defense and our Commander in Chief call this evacuation a success as if there should be celebration, it is like a knife in the heart for our families and for the people who came back.”
  • Cheryl Rex, whose son Marine Lance Cp. Dylan Merola died in the Kabul airport bombing: “I feel I deserve real answers, real truths, facts and for someone to be accountable for the failures that occurred, that took my son’s life.”

Originally posted here.