'Special Report' All-Star Panel on Biden's response to Afghanistan attacks

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Afghanistan evacuation: Concerns bubble as Aug. 31 deadline approaches

Fox News contributors Steve Hayes, Mara Liasson and Byron York discuss the administration's mission to rescue Americans and allies from Afghanistan.

This is a rush transcript of "Special Report with Bret Baier" on August 26, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BAIER: Let's bring in our panel, "Washington Post" columnist Marc Thiessen, 

Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio, 

and Jason Riley, "Wall Street Journal" columnist and senior fellow at the 

Manhattan Institute. Mara, you've covered the White House for a long time. 

This was the worst day of this presidency so far. Your thoughts on how the 

president dealt with it, and where this administration trying to get us? 

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: 

Well, I think that the president came out, and he was very somber, he said 

he took full responsibility for fundamentally everything that has happened. 

I don't like he had a choice in that. He still stuck to his decision to 

pull out. 

But there is still the incredible question about why he was so 180 degrees 

wrong. He keeps on saying that this is inevitable, there had to be this 

kind of chaotic exit. But I don't think he is saying that it inevitable 

that we would have lost a dozen U.S. soldiers. And up until now, we've all 

been saying, and I've been saying it over and over again, that the White 

House has to hope that they can evacuate Afghanistan without any loss of 

American life. And today it happened. And a whole lot of other assumptions 

were exploded today, like you can rely on Taliban to provide security 

around the airport. They were wrong about that to. So this is just a really 

bad day for the White House and for the country. 

BAIER: It really is. And we saw it evolve from the beginning parts of this 

day. Marc, your thoughts? 

MARC THIESSEN, COLUMNIST, "WASHINGTON POST": What we were just talking with 

Ian Bremmer and Jack Keane about Bagram Air Base, one thing that's being 

overlooked about Bagram is that Bagram contained the largest prison in 

Afghanistan. The decision to hand Bagram over to the Taliban allowed them 

to release between 5,000 and 7,000 prisoners, and it included a maxim 

security cell where all the most hardened Al Qaeda and ISIS and Taliban 

leaders were. And they were released before the U.S. withdrawal and free to 

go after them. Let us hope that none of those terrorists were involved in 

this attack today because that would be a searing indictment of decision to 

withdraw from Bagram. 

And then the other point is, instead of being chastened, he used today's 

deadly terrorist attack to justify his decision to stick with the August 

31st withdrawal date. He said, this is a quote, he said this is why I'm so 

determined to limit the duration of the mission. In other words, the 

terrorists succeeded. By killing Americans today, they reinforced Joe Biden 

determination against pressure from our European allies and others to stick 

with that deadline, that artificial deadline for retreat. So they succeeded 

in the mission. 

BAIER: This is a little sound that gives you a sense of this day as it 

developed. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're operating in a hostile 

environment in the city and country now controlled by the Taliban with the 

very real possibility of an ISIS-K attack. 

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: It is a challenging, tense, dynamic 

environment. The threats are still real. 

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: U.S. citizens advised to leave the airport 

and surrounding areas immediately. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are hearing about an explosion that has just taken 

place at the airport in Kabul. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can now confirm that there was 12 U.S. 

servicemembers killed in that attack. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we find who is associated with this, we will go after 

them. 

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not forgive. We will 

not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: And obviously the news during this show, that it is 13 U.S. 

servicemembers, 12 Marines, one Navy medic killed in those attack. Jason, 

obviously the president had that moment about going after those 

responsible, and that was what he wanted to convey. But your thoughts on 

his remarks to the American people? 

JASON RILEY, COLUMNIST, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": What sad is that this was a 

manufactured crisis. This is the administration's own doing. And we see 

what happens when you do things in the wrong order. You don't pull your 

troops out before you get your people out, before you get the embassy 

workers out and the Americans out, and the Afghans who helped us out. Then 

you pull our troops out. 

We're also seeing what happens when you trust the Taliban to help you reach 

your ends. This is a terrorist group. The administrations is trying to 

pretend as if the Taliban is like a kinder and gentler terrorist group, 

unlike ISIS and Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani Network. No, they are not. All of 

these groups share the same ends, and none of them shed a tear at seeing 

U.S. servicemen lose their lives. The Taliban have been lying from the 

beginning. They said that they would not host these extreme terrorist 

groups inside of Afghanistan. But the fact of the matter is that both ISIS 

and Al Qaeda have a presence in that country. That's a violation of the 

deal for us leaving the place. 

So again, this is a misguided policy by the Biden administration that they 

seem to be doubling down on. 

BAIER: The president, Mara, was asked about this "Politico" report in which 

it says U.S. officials provided Taliban with names of Americans, Afghan 

allies to evacuate, quote, "Basically they just put all those Afghans on a 

kill list, said one defense official," condition of being anonymous. "It's 

just appalling and shocking. It makes you feel unclean." Here's what the 

president said about the Taliban. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is no evidence thus 

far that I've been given as a consequence by any of our commanders in the 

field that there has been collusion between the Taliban and ISIS. They are 

not good guys, the Taliban. I'm not suggesting that at all. But they have 

keen interests. 

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: He said, Mara, that the lists may have been given to get people 

through the checkpoint. We do know that General McKenzie said today that 

they are sharing intel with the Taliban. Your thoughts? 

LIASSON: He said that he didn't know about it. It might exist. And he said 

so far there is no evidence that they have done anything wrong with this 

list. OK, well, he has been wrong on so many other things. So we are going 

to have to wait and see if anybody on that list, if it can be proven that 

the Taliban went out and took reprisals against those people. I think after 

today, the notion that you can trust the Taliban, whether they could or 

won't is unclear. But they certainly weren't able to provide security 

around the airport. And I don't know why giving them a list of people that 

they should let through checkpoints is going to be helpful. 

BAIER: Marc, last word. There's no way that this president is going to be 

impeached, even though there are a couple of calls in the Senate and 

several in the House from Republicans to do that. Jen Psaki saying today is 

not about politics, it's about coming together. And that is true. Getting 

Americans, not only the servicemembers, but the Americans and the Afghan 

allies out of Afghanistan has to be job one. 

THIESSEN: It is, but he's completely un-chastened by the experience. What 

he should do is exactly what Mara was saying. He should say to the Taliban, 

we hold you responsible for this attack. You took responsibility for the 

perimeter of the airport, you set up checkpoints. You decided who came in 

and who came out, and you let these suicide bombers through. Whether it's 

intentional or not, you are responsible, and as a result we cannot complete 

our evacuation in time. We are staying beyond August 31st. we're staying as 

long as the mission takes, and we are not requesting it, we are telling 

you. 

And by the way, we are going after every ISIS and Al Qaeda position in 

Afghanistan before we leave. If you're saying you're going after them to 

hunt them down while you're pulling all your troops out on Tuesday is 

probably not a big threat. We're going to stay until we've gotten the 

people who have done this to us and we're going to take them out. And if 

you interfere, you're going to regret it. 

BAIER: Panel, thank you very much.

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