CNN’s Atwood: State Dept. ‘Waited’ a Year to Drop Afghanistan Report on Friday Before a Holiday Weekend

On Friday’s “CNN News Central,” CNN National Security Correspondent Kylie Atwood said the State Department waited a year to release its report on the withdrawal from Afghanistan on the Friday before the July 4 holiday weekend because the State Department “doesn’t want all of its failures with this withdrawal really dragged through Washington and set up at a moment when Congress is in session, they might face more criticism.”

Atwood said, “[I]t’s lost on no one that this report, not only is rolled out on a Friday before a holiday weekend, but it’s also being rolled out more than a year after the report itself was concluded. So, they’ve waited more than a year to roll out these findings. They’re waiting until a Friday, before Fourth of July. What the senior State Department official said on that call is that they weren’t going to get into process-related questions. But clearly, folks in this building see that timing and they’re concerned about them trying to really hide the fact that the department doesn’t want all of its failures with this withdrawal really dragged through Washington and set up at a moment when Congress is in session, they might face more criticism.”

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