Biden defends Afghanistan withdrawal amid criticism, crisis
Ari Fleischer, Mara Liasson and Jason Riley joins 'Special Report' to discuss the president's exit strategy, reaction to the Taliban takeover
Matters continue to get worse for President Biden as critics on both sides of the aisle panned the comments he made to ABC's George Stephanopoulos about his administration's turbulent Afghan withdrawal.
Just moments after Biden walked away from the White House podium without taking questions following an address focused on the coronavirus, ABC News released clips from the sitdown taped Wednesday afternoon and more of the interview aired on "World News Tonight."
Stephanopoulos pressed Biden if he thought the withdrawal could have been "handled better in any way."
TALIBAN AND AFGHANISTAN: LIVE UPDATES
"No. I don’t think it could’ve been handled in a way that- we’re going to go back in hindsight and look but the idea that somehow there was a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens," Biden said.
"So for you, that was always priced in the decision?" Stephanopoulos followed.
"Yes," Biden answered.
"This is a presidency-defining clip. And it’s really bad," Commentary associate editor Noah Rothman reacted.
BIDEN SAYS ONGOING ‘CHAOS’ IN AFGHANISTAN WAS ‘PRICED’ INTO WITHDRAWAL DECISION DURING ABC INTERVIEW
"This is such a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans still in Afghanistan. He had no plan, he has no urgency, and he won’t take responsibility. #Shameful," former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley wrote.
"Biden's failure to even admit to his catastrophic mistake, when the whole world has watched the disaster unfurl on live TV, is both breathtakingly arrogant & disturbingly delusional. He either doesn't care or is in denial," British TV personality Piers Morgan said.
"A truly ignorant and shameful performance by an American president," Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., tweeted.
"No way to avoid this chaos? That's a bald-faced lie. Joe Biden is as dishonest as he is impotent," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wrote.
Members of the media, including CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler, called out Biden's contradicting rhetoric, pointing to comments the president made last month denying the likelihood of a Taliban takeover.
Biden raised eyebrows by lashing out at Stephanopolous for invoking the images that emerged on Monday between the crowded C-17 and Afghans falling to their deaths as they tried holding on to the exterior of the plane to escape the Taliban-controlled country.
"That was four days ago, five days ago," the president asserted.
"Two days ago. It was two days ago," The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis told Biden.
"They were taken less than 72 hours ago," CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale tweeted.
"Narrator: It was Monday morning," Daily Wire managing editor Emily Zanotti quipped.
"This happened Monday. Not 5 days ago. What exactly is going on here?!" former "View" co-host Meghan McCain exclaimed.
"Tone-deaf, callous, pathetic," The Economist editor Sashank Joshi wrote.
PENTAGON WEIGHS IN ON AFGHAN EVACUATIONS, BIDEN SAYS ‘CHAOS’ COULDN'T BE AVOIDED: LIVE UPDATES
"If we take the administration's word that every bit of the chaos in Afghanistan was inevitable and expected, their political mismanagement is near-criminal. How do you plan to go on vacation while Kabul is collapsing? How do you give answers like this?" Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle asked.
"This is a brutal exchange for so many reasons, but Biden replying with ‘that was four days ago, five days ago’ about the photos that we saw two days ago is bad and then saying ‘no’ to being asked if this could've been handled better is as bad as it gets," writer Josh Jordan tweeted.
"this has the same sort of negative vibe as 'what difference, at this point, does it make?'" Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy, wrote, alluding to Hillary Clinton's infamous comment during the Benghazi hearings.
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Critics slammed the president for walking away from the White House podium without taking questions following remarks he made about the coronavirus.
The Biden administration has faced overwhelming scorn by both Republicans and Democrats as well as the media for the turmoil that has erupted in Afghanistan with the Taliban taking over.
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