On Thursday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News,” NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Kristen Welker reported on the Biden administration’s review of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and noted that while the Biden administration attempts to blame the Trump administration, the Biden administration has maintained — both in 2021 and today — that the evacuation wasn’t a mess, despite the fact that, to this day, “Afghan interpreters who helped the U.S. are in hiding.”
Welker said, “Tonight, nearly two years after the deadly and disastrous American withdrawal from Afghanistan, those stunning images of Afghans desperately chasing U.S. planes, and the airport terror attack — which killed 13 U.S. servicemembers — the Biden administration releasing its after-action review, trying to pin much of the blame on former President Trump, who had left office eight months earlier, including citing sharp drawdowns of U.S. troops.”
She added that while the report acknowledges the evacuation should have started sooner, “President Biden, at the time, called the withdrawal a[n] ‘extraordinary success’.” And played a clip of White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby saying that he doesn’t “buy the whole argument of chaos.”
Welker concluded, “Meanwhile, in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan tonight, women face new oppression and Afghan interpreters who helped the U.S. are in hiding.” And “Just last month, the CENTCOM commander warned ISIS in Afghanistan could conduct terror attacks against U.S. interests abroad in under six months.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett