President Joe Biden in his Afghanistan address on Friday claimed that American allies have raised no questions of the US’s credibility around how the withdrawal has been conducted. Biden also promised to evacuate all Americans and allies amid reports of danger and obstacles on the journey to the airport in Kabul.
‘I have seen no questions of our credibility from our allies around the world,’ Biden said, answering a reporter’s question.
‘I’ve spoken with our NATO allies,’ he added. ‘The fact of the matter is, I have not seen that. As a matter of fact, the exact opposite – I’ve gotten that we’re acting with dispatch, that we’re committing to what we said we would do.’
Biden in his first remarks on the Afghanistan collapse since Monday held fast to defending his handling of the situation. He defiantly reiterated his ongoing narrative: that there was no need to maintain a US military presence there with al-Qaeda degraded and the terrorist group’s founder Osama bin Laden killed.
‘Does anybody truly believe that I would not have had to put in significantly more American forces?’ Biden told reporters. ‘Send your sons, your daughters, like my son was sent to Iraq, to maybe die?’
During his briefing, Biden sought to reassure Americans who are still in the country in crisis.
‘Let me be clear – any American who wants to come, we will get you home,’ Biden said.
He continued: ‘I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, that it will be without risk of loss. But as commander-in-chief, I can promise you I will mobilize every resource necessary, and as an American, I offer my gratitude to the brave men and women of the US armed forces who are carrying out this mission. They’re incredible.’
Biden called the effort to rescue Americans and vulnerable Afghan civilians ‘one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history’.
Asked whether he would consider extending the evacuation effort past the August 31 deadline if Americans and others seeking to escape have not been airlifted, Biden said he believes the mission can be completed by then.
However, he added, ‘We’re going to make that judgement as we go’.
Biden said he ordered for evacuation flights to resume and that 5,700 people were airlifted on Thursday. Since August 14, 13,000 people have been taken out of the country and the figure exceeds 18,000 since July, he said.
In his last address on Afghanistan on Monday, Biden said he had no regrets about his decision in April to begin withdrawing all US troops.
‘I stand squarely behind my decision,’ Biden said in the briefing from the White House. ‘After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.’
Biden added he was ‘deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision’.
During another briefing from the White House on Wednesday, Biden focused on attacking Republican governors trying to prevent schools from requiring masks and failed to mention Afghanistan or answer reporters’ questions on the issue.
In a sit-down interview with ABC News recorded Wednesday and aired Thursday, Biden appallingly said ‘no one’s being killed right now’ at the Kabul airport, despite at least a dozen confirmed deaths.
When ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos brought up photos of ‘Afghans falling’ from C-17 military planes evacuating people, Biden said they were taken ‘four days ago, five days ago’.
Biden earlier this week doubled down on his statements that the US did not foresee the Taliban defeating the Afghan military and gaining control so quickly.
‘I don’t think anybody anticipated that,’ the president said in his ABC News interview.
After his briefing on Friday, Biden headed to his home in Delaware for the weekend.