White House: Harris ‘Was at the Center’ of Planning of Afghanistan Withdrawal

During an interview on Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central” that took place before that night’s presidential debate, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby responded to a question on if Vice President Kamala Harris worked in lockstep with President Biden on the withdrawal from Afghanistan by stating that “she was at the center of” “the policy discussions and the planning that went into the withdrawal,” “as she would be as Vice President.”

Co-host John Berman read from the House Republican report on Afghanistan and asked, “The idea of Harris working in lockstep with President Biden on the Afghan withdrawal. Is that accurate?”

Kirby responded, “She certainly was at the table for all those national security decisions. She’s spoken herself about her support for the decision to end the war and her contribution to the policy discussions and the planning that went into the withdrawal, if she was at the center of that, of course, as she would be as Vice President. But this idea, first of all, that they’re now throwing her into this, [it] clearly just shows the partisan nature of this report and the political nature of it. The timing of it here, coming the day before the debate, it’s hard to escape that. But this idea that either the Vice President or the President were just recklessly moving to this withdrawal without concern to Afghan women and girls just flies in the face of the facts. That is not true.”

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