CNN’s Tapper on Afghanistan: ‘Shocking that President Biden Could Have Been So Wrong’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Sunday on his show “State of the Union” that it was “shocking” how wrong President Joe Biden was when he said it was “highly unlikely” the Taliban would quickly take over Afghanistan.

Tapper said, “Weeks before the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the deadline of President Biden’s complete withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban having seized much of that country they’re now at the gates of the capital city of Kabul. Their representatives are meeting with leadership inside the Afghan presidential palace. The rapid crumbling of the country has caught the Biden White House flat-footed. On Saturday, after pulling out almost all of the 2500 service members there when he took office, President Biden said he would deploy more than more U.S. troops, 5,000 now total for the limited mission of getting Americans and others fleeing safely out of Kabul. Warning of a, quote, swift and strong U.S. response if the Taliban interfere. With the constant thereon of helicopters, overhead sources tell CNN this morning a total of Americans from our embassy in Kabul is well underway and should be completed by Tuesday.”

He added, “That is, of course, a sharp turn-around from six weeks ago when President Biden called it highly unlikely that the Taliban would overrun the country, an assessment that even at the time struck many experts in Biden’s own administration as unrealistic. And now, as American diplomats rush to shred embassy documents and escape, it seems shocking that President Biden could have been so wrong.”

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