Trump Shreds Biden for Shifting Blame over Afghanistan: 'Grossly Incompetent'
Biden deflected blame for disaster onto Afghans, Trump and Taliban
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President Donald Trump has nuked Joe Biden over the Democrat's attempt to shift the blame for the crisis in Afghanistan.
During a national address on Monday, Biden said he stands "squarely behind my decision" but also tried to blame Trump, the Taliban, and Afghans themselves for the disaster.
After days of silence, Biden spoke for the first time while popping out from his vacation at Camp David, before swiftly returning to put his feet up without taking any questions from the media.
Biden's decision to immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation allowed the Taliban to seize control of the country on Sunday.
The terrorist group blitzed through Afghanistan, toppling multiple major cities, seizing military installations and vast amounts of U.S. military hardware.
The Taliban successfully toppled the Afghan government and military in a matter of days.
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Amid heavy criticism for his handling of the Afghanistan pullout, Biden gave a short address to the nation after returning to Washington, D.C., on Monday.
In his address, he said he stands “squarely behind my decision” to leave Afghanistan.
However, he claimed that Trump’s prior agreement with the Taliban had left him with little choice.
Throughout his speech, Biden defended the withdrawal of troops, despite the fact that most people were in agreement that the United States should leave the country.
The bulk of the criticism directed at Biden is the mishandling of the withdrawal, which he ordered to be done immediately and suddenly - an issue he appeared to try and dodge during his speech.
"It’s not that we left Afghanistan," Trump said in a statement after Biden’s address.
"It’s the grossly incompetent way we left!”
Biden claimed that had he not followed through with a tight timeline to pull out American forces, the United States would have inevitably headed into heated conflict with the Taliban.
"When I came into office, I inherited a deal that President Trump negotiated with the Taliban,” Biden said.
"Under his agreement, U.S. forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021 – just a little over three months after I took office.
"U.S. forces had already drawn down during the Trump administration from roughly 15,500 American forces to 2,500 troops in the country, and the Taliban was at its strongest militarily since 2001.”
"The choice I had to make as your president was to either follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season.
"There would have been no ceasefire after May 1.
"There was no agreement protecting our forces after May 1.
"There was no status quo of stability without American casualties after May 1,” he continued.
"There was only the cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more American troops back into combat in Afghanistan, lurching into the third decade of conflict.”
"I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden stated.
"After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.
"That’s why we’re still there.”
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U.S. forces in Afghanistan are rushing to evacuate thousands of American citizens, personnel, and Afghan refugees amid the ongoing chaos that has enveloped Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city.
The United States took control of the Karzai International Airport on Sunday to oversee evacuation operations and air traffic control.
The U.S. suspended flights from the airport Monday morning, however, after thousands of Afghans broke through airport security and stormed the airstrip attempting to get a flight out of the Taliban-controlled country.
Biden ordered 1,000 more U.S. troops into Kabul to help maintain order and aid in the evacuation process.
