On Wednesday, Reuters published a transcript of a leaked call between Joe Biden and Afghani President Ashraf Ghani from July. In the call, Biden told Ghani to lie about the situation in his country.
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden told the former Afghanistan president. “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”
“Mr. President, we are facing a full-scale invasion, composed of Taliban, full Pakistani planning and logistical support, and at least 10-15,000 international terrorists, predominantly Pakistanis thrown into this, so that dimension needs to be taken account of,” Ghani responded.
But Biden only cared about his planned withdrawal. When Ghani said Afghan Security Forces needed air support from the United States, Biden promised he’d provide it… if Ghani lied and gave the impression that the situation in Afghanistan was stable when it most certainly wasn’t.
“I’m not a military guy, so I’m not telling you what that plan should precisely look like, you’re going to get not only more help, but you’re going to get a perception that is going to change in terms of how , um… our allies and folks here in the States and other places think you’re doing,” Biden told him.
Let’s not forget, the Biden administration promised to be honest and transparent with the American people. The situation in Afghanistan has certainly been a case study in the administration’s dishonesty and lack of transparency, but this leaked call proved just how far Joe Biden was willing to go to sell a bunch of lies to get his planned September 11th Afghanistan victory photo op.
But, once again, the Biden administration failed the test of transparency when Jen Psaki refused to answer a question about the leaked call.
“There’s some reporting that we’d like to confirm regarding a call in June — in July, rather — between President Biden and former Afghanistan President Ghani: one, that both leaders appeared completely unaware that the Taliban would take over; and, secondly, that they discussed plans to project that Afghan forces were still in control. Is that accurate? Can you tell us a little bit more about that call?” a reporter asked?
“Well, I’m not going to get into private diplomatic conversations or leaked transcripts of phone calls,” Psaki began. “But what I can reiterate for you is that we have stated many times that no one anticipated — the vast majority, I should say — there may have been individuals and agencies, so I don’t want to eliminate that option — but our national security team and no one in Congress or, I would say, most people out in the public anticipated that the Taliban would be able to take over the country as quickly as they did or that the Afghan National Security Forces would fold as quickly as they did.”
While it’s significant that Psaki did not deny the accuracy of the leaked call transcript, her refusal to respond to it is stunning. On her first day on the job, she vowed to be honest and transparent. But, of course, the real objective of the promise was to imply that the previous administration had not been honest or transparent rather than to commit to those ideals.
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