Skip to main content

I Can’t Remember Your First Question – Three Times President Biden Faltered During Taliban, Afghan Crisis’ Briefing

According to Daily Mail, there are seven contentious moments from the president's news conference.

President Biden took questions from a room full of reporters on Friday for the first time since the Taliban’s lightning-fast takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan, but at times the 78-year-old commander-in-chief flubbed his words and offered a series of chaotic contradictions.

According to Daily Mail, there are seven contentious moments from the president's news conference.

Image

One, Biden proclaims al-Qaeda is 'gone' in Afghanistan, in direct contradiction with the Pentagon's assessment

'What interest do we have in Afghanistan with al-Qaeda gone?' Biden rhetorically asked the White House press corps.

That assertion stands in direct contradiction to a report from the Defense Department Inspector general on Operation Freedom's Sentinel, covering April 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021.

“The Taliban continued to maintain its relationship with al-Qaeda, providing safe haven for the terrorist group in Afghanistan,” the report read.

Two, Biden said he had seen “no indication” Americans had a tough time getting to the airport, but American journalists on the ground said otherwise.   

“We have no indication that [Americans] have not been able to get, in Kabul, through the airport. We have made an agreement with the Taliban. Thus far, they have allowed them to go through,” Biden told reporters.

“To the best of our knowledge, the Taliban checkpoints, they are letting through people showing American passports,” Biden said.

Days ago, the US State Department told Americans to get to the Kabul airport on their own to be evacuated. “THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT CANNOT ENSURE SAFE PASSAGE TO THE HAMID KARZAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT,” they wrote in a memo.

State Department spokesman Ned Price in a subsequent news conference conceded that Americans were having a difficult time getting to the airport.

“It remains to be the case that many Afghans and many American citizens have not been able to get through,” a reporter noted. “I don't think anyone is denying the reports,” Price said. 

Thirdly, as Biden turned to leave the briefing, a reporter yelled out, “Why do you continue to trust the Taliban, Mr. President?”

“This is about America leading the world, and all our allies have agreed to that. And by the way, before I made this decision, I was at the G7, as well as met with our NATO partners, and I told them all, every one of them knew and agreed with the decision I made, to jointly end our involvement in Afghanistan. The first part of your question was — I can't remember now,” the president told another reporter. 

“Would you make the same commitment to bring out Afghans who assisted in the war effort?” another question came. 

“Yes, yes, we're making the same commitment,' the president said, adding that evacuating special immigrant visa recipients was 'equally important, almost,' as evacuating American citizens,” Biden replied.