Biden Talks Kabul Chaos with ABC’s Stephanopolous

ABC aired a highly-edited interview with President Biden on Good Morning America on Thursday morning.

The main focus of the exchange was the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden downplayed the threat posed by terrorists in Afghanistan, saying the U.S. faces a “significantly greater” possibility of terror threats from East Africa and Syria.

When George Stephanopoulos brought up the chaos at the Kabul airport, Biden was quick to reply, “That was four days ago, five days ago.” In fact, it was two days before the interview. Stephanopoulos did not correct the President.

When asked what were his thoughts as he viewed the horrendous images of Afghans falling from the sky, Biden said, ”What I thought was, we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did.”

Biden interviewed on Wednesday afternoon .The horrific images of people falling from a US plane were tweeted early Monday by Afghan journalists. The statement ‘four or five’ days ago made by Joe was not correct, his timeline was off. 

“We went there for two reasons, George. Two reasons,” Biden said. “One, to get bin Laden, and two to wipe out, as best we could, and we did, the al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. We did it. Then what happened? Began to morph into the notion that, instead of having a counterterrorism capability to have small forces there in––or in the region––to be able to take on al-Qaeda if it tried to reconstitute, we decided to engage in nation-building. In nation-building. That never made any sense to me.” 

In reality, Joe Biden argued in favor of nation-building for many years as a U.S. Senator. In a 2003 interview with CBS, Biden was asked, ”Should we be in the business of nation-building?” He responded, “Absolutely, along with the rest of the world.” Biden also wrote in a 2004 Wall Street Journal op-ed, “We also have to take seriously nation-building.”

Biden explained that the quick collapse of the Afghan military was totally unexpected. However, multiple reports indicate that the White House was warned about the likely scenario by intelligence agencies.

For the first time, the 46th President said that the American troops will stay in Afghanistan for as long as it takes to bring all Americans home. It is estimated that at least 10,000 citizens remain in Kabul.

The full transcript of the interview can be read by clicking here.