JOE BIDEN ‘MAKES NO APOLOGIES FOR’ BOTCHED AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL:
Joe Biden’s approval ratings have been underwater since his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, which resulted in millions of dollars of military equipment being left behind, a frantic effort to evacuate Afghan refugees and American citizens from the country, and a bombing that took the lives of 13 U.S. service members.
Yet when Afghanistan came up during his press conference on Wednesday, he doubled down on his actions.
“There was no way to get out of Afghanistan after twenty years easily. Not possible,” Biden insisted. “And I make no apologies for what I did.”
He continued, “I have a great concern for the women and men who were blown up on the line at the airport by [the] terrorist attack against them.”
That’s cold comfort to the Americans still trapped there: Wall Street Journal editorial calls for more attention to Americans still stranded in Afghanistan.
According to a source cited by the board, the State Department is currently tracking 126 Americans still in Afghanistan with only five ready to depart with the necessary travel documents. The information provided by the source followed the State Department claiming earlier in December that it “is currently in touch with fewer than a dozen U.S. citizens who want to leave Afghanistan, are prepared to depart, and have the necessary travel documents.”
Earlier: Joe Biden Comes Full Circle:
During a 2012 eulogy for George McGovern, Joe Biden recalled a confrontation he had with President Gerald Ford over pulling troops out of Vietnam. Ford had agreed to meet with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which included then-freshman Joe Biden, to discuss the administration’s military funding requests during the fall of South Vietnam on April 14, 1975.
According to Biden’s account: “I said, ‘Begging the president’s pardon, but I’m sure if the president were in my position, the president would ask the president the following question.’ I swear to God, it’s in the transcript. And Ford looked at me very graciously, and he said, ‘Yeah?’ I said, ‘With all due respect, Mr. President, you haven’t told us anything.’ They were talking about Sector 1, Sector 2, Sector 3, and with that the president turned and said, ‘Henry, tell them.’ And that was the first time it was decided that we were not going to try to sustain our presence [in Vietnam],” said Biden.
But Biden’s alleged statement, and the response from Ford, do not appear in the classified minutes of the meeting, which have been released by the Ford Library Museum. According to the transcript, Biden did speak up at the meeting to oppose military aid to help evacuate South Vietnamese allies alongside the U.S. troops. “I am not sure I can vote for an amount to put American troops in for one to six months to get the Vietnamese out. I will vote for any amount for getting the Americans out. I don’t want it mixed with getting the Vietnamese out,” said Biden, according to the transcript.
Found via Fred Bauer, who notes, “Biden has never made any secret of his tremendous admiration for McGovern, whom he views as a transformational and inspirational figure.”
