'Special Report' All-Star panel on Biden's Afghanistan exit strategy

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," August 18, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BRET BAIER: Let's bring in our panel early, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio, and Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

And we're just digesting this ABC interview George Stephanopoulos with President Biden, we heard a bit of that there, we're going to play another soundbite in just a second.

But Ari, to see the president come out today in the middle of what has been really three, four or five days of chaos in Kabul, and give that a speech about booster shots and then walk out of the room. As a former White House Press Secretary, what were your thoughts?

ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: You know, I always try to put myself in the shoes of why is the president doing what he's doing? He must have a good reason. And when you hear the tone in those snippets of his interview with George Stephanopoulos, he sounds so exasperated with the questions he's getting.

He sounded that way at the July news conference, if you recall recently. Why do you ask me questions? It's a three-day weekend, I don't want to talk about Afghanistan.

You know, Joe Biden strikes me as one of these people has been around so long, has seen it all, heard it all. He knows it all.

And so, when he says to the military, you're out, were coming home, that's it. He doesn't want to hear all the complications, the other problems that will ensue as a result of it. He just says, I've heard all your excuses before, just bring them home.

And I think that he's checked out. I think that's the only thing he was interested in. And that's why this has backfired so much.

BAIER: All right, we're going to play the extended part of the first clip of the interview we got from ABC. And then there's another part we've just brought in. Mara, take a listen to the longer first part.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: You've seen those hundreds of people packed into a C-17. We've seen Afghans falling --

BIDEN: That was four days ago, five days ago.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What did you think when you first saw those pictures?

BIDEN: Well, I thought was we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control that airport. And we did.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you don't think this could have been handled -- this exit could have been handled better in any way, no mistakes?

BIDEN: No, I don't think it could have been handled in a way that there we -- we're going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow, there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens. I don't know how that happened.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, for you that was always priced into the decision?

BIDEN: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Now, Mara, today, the Defense Secretary said we do not have the capability to go out and collect Americans outside of the airport. They have to get there.

Yet the State Department sent out the embassy alert today that ended with the United States government cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai International Airport and went on to say that they're asking the Taliban to ensure that safe passage.

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Yes, I mean, the messages from the White House are so confusing. I mean, basically, the message from Biden today on ABC is it had to be this way. There was no alternative. And he seems to suggest since he said it was priced in that he knew it was going to happen.

But then, you have General Milley saying that there was no intelligence that suggested that the Afghan government and military would collapse in 11 days. You also have Joe Biden back on July 8th, when he was asked, your own Intelligence Community has assessed that the Afghan government will likely collapse. He said that's not true.

So, was he blindsided? Was he not blindsided? It just -- we can't get a kind of straight picture of what happened. And to say that this was the only way things could have unfolded, I think is just not a good enough answer.

BAIER: Well, here's some more answers. And I'll let you assess whether they're good enough or not. Another long clip from the ABC interview, let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: And are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to be out, is out.

BIDEN: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about our Afghan allies? We have about 80,000?

BIDEN: Well, that's not --

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is that too high?

BIDEN: That's too high.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How many?

BIDEN: The estimate were given is somewhere between 50,000 and 65,000 folks, total kinder (PH) families.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Does the commitment hold for them as well?

BIDEN: The commitment holds to get everyone out that in fact, we can get out and everyone should come out and that's the objective. That's what we're doing now. That's the path we're on. I think we'll get there.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, Americans should understand the troops might have to be there beyond August 31st.

BIDEN: No, Americans should understand that we're going to try to get it done before August 31st.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if we don't, the troops will stay?

BIDEN: If we don't, we'll determine at the time who's left.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And?

BIDEN: And if there are American force -- if there's American citizens left, we're going to stay 'til we get them all out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: We got there eventually. Jason, but what would you take from that?

JASON RILEY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: Bret, I think that the Taliban is lying to the U.S. government about its intentions. And I think the U.S. government in terms of the Biden administration is lying to the American people about its hands being tied as Mara was just referring to.

There's no reason we should believe anything that the Taliban is telling us. As part of the Trump administration agreement, the Taliban was supposed to break ties with Al-Qaeda, they have not done that, according to a U.N. report.

As part of that same agreement, they were supposed to enter peace negotiations with the Afghan government. As we can all see, they are taking over this country by force.

The Biden administration decided to turn Afghanistan over to some of the worst terrorist on the planet. And they are trying to present surrender as courageous, some act of courage. And I don't think the American people are buying it.

BAIER: But there is -- there was a hunger, Ari, to get troops out. But how we got them out and what we did to get them out was the key part.

There's some amazing video today coming out of Afghanistan of women, mothers handing over their children over the fence to try to get them into the airport, even though they know they can't get there. We didn't hear that. And there's some of that video right now. We didn't hear that empathy, that emotion, at least not yet, from President Biden.

FLEISCHER: And this is where he said that chaos was inevitable and he was clear eyed about the chaos. Bret, he wasn't clear eyed. He was two faced.

When he held that July news conference, he was asked, he said he had confidence in the Afghan military. He said that they were strong. 300,000 best equipment, best trained. Why didn't he say at that time, no, this will be chaotic?

He didn't level with the American people. He took two totally different stance depending on what was happening on the ground in Afghanistan, and what's happening on the ground of Afghanistan as he blew it.

Instead of having the proper sequence of withdrawal, which should have been civilians first, equipment second, troops last. He had troops come out first, which is why civilians are now endangered. Our equipment has been captured and the troops had to go back. He blew it.

BAIER: Last thing quickly, Mara, what do you think the long term political impact of this moment, this week is for this president?

LIASSON: Well, I can say right now, it doesn't look good, because he's presiding over a debacle.

But over time, I think it depends on what happens in Afghanistan. Does Al- Qaeda get another safe haven? Do they launch attacks from there? What kind of images are we going to see about the treatment of women and girls?

And you know, the American people sometime have a -- sometimes have a very short attention span. If Afghanistan settles down, maybe he won't suffer great damage.

Right now, I think there's no other way to look at this that a bad thing politically for Biden, right now.

BAIER: All right, panel, standby if you would. We'll come to you later in the show. Thank you.

…

BAIER: Defense Secretary and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs today, and there you see what is happening with the airport and trying to get Americans and others to that airport to exit. The president did say in that ABC interview as we played earlier that they will stay beyond August 31st to get as many people out as they can. But it's still complicated.

And how the world sees this, here is just one glimpse of this. And this is from Ian Bremmer who we know, a political scientist and Eurasia group, he tweets "The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is, quote, the greatest debacle that NATO has experienced since its foundation." That's from "Armin Laschet, German's likely next chancellor."

We're back with our panel, Ari, Mara, and Jason. Jason, you hear something like that, and you realize this has much broader implications.

JASON RILEY, COLUMNIST, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": It does, Bret. Of course, we have the capability to do it. The question is, do we have the political will to do it? And that's why I say that this administration is being dishonest with the American people. This claim that, oh, this is a civil war, and we just need to get out of there. That is not why we went into Afghanistan. We did not go into Afghanistan to secure women's rights or political freedom or any of that. We went in there with one purpose -- to make sure it did not become a safe haven for terrorists to launch attacks on America and its allies. That mission has clearly not been accomplished, and the Biden administration is withdrawing not only incompetently but prematurely. And that is what is going on there. And this is a question of political will, not capability.

BAIER: This is Wendy Sherman from State Department shortly after that Defense Department briefing, Ari. Take a listen to her message to the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WENDY SHERMAN, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: We have seen reports that the Taliban, contrary to their public statements and their commitments to our government, are blocking Afghans who wish to leave the country from reaching the airport. We expect them to allow all-American citizens, all third country nationals, and all Afghans who wish to leave to do so safely and without harassment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Do they really think, Ari, from the podium from the State Department that the Taliban fighters encircling the airport are going to be listening to Wendy Sherman?

(LAUGHTER)

ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yes, this is the same administration that said if you don't follow the rules, you won't have international legitimacy, as if the radical Islamists who now are running Afghanistan care what a bunch of Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus around the world think. They are going to do what they're going to do. So this is a western fantasy that statements like this, exhortations have value.

Military strength has value. Leverage has value. And the amazing thing now, Bret, is the United States of America, an island protecting an airport, is now dependent on the tender mercies of the Taliban at the outskirts of that airport. That is the reality in which our military faces the world today in Afghanistan. It's an amazing situation that the United States has found itself in.

BAIER: Mara, after we heard the Defense Department, the defense secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, we heard messages from the State Department, and we heard what the president said to George Stephanopoulos. What do we conceivably think the president's speech tomorrow on Afghanistan that we hear he may be delivering is going to be?

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Well, I don't know. We know what he said the other day, that he felt no regrets about his decision. He focused on the policy, not the execution, because he knows most Americans are with him on the basic decision to withdraw.

Where he is running into trouble is that he hasn't been able to withdraw competently or successfully. And that is the real problem here, is that Americans have soured on this war. They've figured after 20 years and trillions of dollars and $86 billion in training the Afghan military that it just wasn't worth it. That's quite different with what is happening on the ground now. I think the Biden administration's first task is to try to get ahold of this withdrawal and get people out safely, and do it really quickly.

BAIER: And just quickly, Jason, just ironic that on Twitter the Taliban spokesman still has a place, but the former president of the United States does not.

RILEY: Yes, you're right. And it's not just twitter. YouTube is discipling Rand Paul, Senator Rand Paul, who is a medical doctor, for questioning masks. Amazon does not want to publish people who question the transgender movement, but will publish people, or sell books from people who promote Nazi ideology. So there is a tremendous inconsistency here on these platforms in terms of enforcing their rules. And if they don't want Congress to get involved, I think they need to come up with some consistent policy here.

BAIER: Panel, stand by, if you would. When we come back, tomorrow's headlines with the panel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Finally tonight, a look at tomorrow's headlines with the panel. Mara?

LIASSON: My headline is Taliban's promise of tolerance undercut by their actions. I think in this case it's better to see what they do than listen to what they say.

BAIER: All right, Jason?

RILEY: Bret, I think we are going to see reports that not only large sums of money but large numbers of young jihadists from places like Afghanistan and elsewhere are going to be flocking to Afghanistan to help the Taliban retake the country. Thanks to the Biden administration's incompetence here, terrorists all over the world are going to see Afghanistan as a safe haven.

BAIER: Ari?

FLEISCHER: My headline is a different headline, and it's a happy headline. Yankees sweep Red Sox. If season ended today, Sox out of playoff picture. A happy heading.

BAIER: Some Boston people are very sad about that, but that's good to end on, something different.

Thank you. Tomorrow on SPECIAL REPORT" we will continue to follow the developments in Afghanistan and with this administration. Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight and for trusting us. That's it for this SPECIAL REPORT, fair, balanced, and still unafraid. FOX NEWS PRIMETIME hosted by Will Cain starts right now. Hey, Will.
 

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