President Joe Biden on Friday downplayed a confidential State Department cable warning in July of Afghanistan’s possible collapse as the Taliban swept through the country.
A transcript is as follows:
REPORTER: We learned over the last 24 hours that there was a dissent cable from the State Department saying that the Taliban would come faster through Afghanistan. Can you say after why that cable was issued that the U.S. didn’t do more to get more Americans out?
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I have all kinds of cables, all kinds of advice. If you notice, it ranges from this group saying that they didn’t say when it would fall when it did fall to saying it wouldn’t happen for a long time and they’d be able to sustain themselves until the end of the year. I made the decision, the buck stops with me. I took the consensus opinion. The consensus opinion was that, in fact, it would not occur, if it were to occur, later in the year. It was my decision.
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