House Armed Services Chair Smith: Biden Said There Wouldn’t Be Chaos in Afghanistan, Now He Says It Was Inevitable, It Doesn’t ‘Add Up’

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) said that President Joe Biden initially argued that the withdrawal from Afghanistan “would not be chaotic. And now he is saying it was inevitable that it was going to be chaotic. Okay, well, that doesn’t really add up.”

Smith said, “I mean, you can play the tape. It’s not hard. I mean, the president said, as this was going on, that — he said quite clearly, it would not be chaotic. And now he is saying it was inevitable that it was going to be chaotic. Okay, well, that doesn’t really add up. One of those two things is not true, and I think that’s unfortunate. Because fundamentally, the president isn’t wrong, in that, when Donald Trump decided to negotiate with the Taliban and cut out the Afghan government, I mean, that put us in a terrible position. And also, it’s become clear that the Afghan government was unable to stand.”

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