On Thursday’s edition of “CBS News Primetime,” CBS “Face the Nation” host and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Margaret Brennan stated that the Biden administration’s Afghanistan report omitted warnings and advice against the Biden administration’s Afghanistan strategy, such as a 2021 cable from the State Department that urged a faster evacuation as the Taliban made gains in the country and statements by then-CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie that he advised against pulling out of the country.
Brennan said, “The former head of Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, told CBS in September he advised President Biden against pulling out.”
Brennan then played a clip of McKenzie saying, “I gave advice. My advice was not followed” before stating that “no mention of that is made in the report. Also absent, a July 13 internal State Department cable warning that the Taliban was making rapid territorial gains and recommending that evacuation be sped up.”
She also stated that while there were constraints put on the visa system by the Trump administration, “most of the conversation publicly from the Biden administration is not about the withdrawal, but rather, the diplomatic negotiation and the decision to end U.S. involvement in the first place. That’s the space the White House wants to engage on because they also know that it’s the politically popular part of the decision…the execution of the withdrawal and the exit was on the Biden administration’s watch. And so, the decisions and the planning on how to execute and follow through are the part[s] that are thinly-detailed in these twelve pages that were publicly released.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett