Journalists rush to Biden’s defense as military generals contradict president over Afghanistan pullout



[ad_1]

Several reporters rushed to President Biden’s defense after senior military officials suggested the president lied about the advice he received regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

President of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and the head of the U.S. Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. During their testimony, they described the role of the Biden administration in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and how they both recommended that the United States maintain a presence of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

However, in an August interview with ABC New, Biden was asked if his military advisers advised him to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

“No. No one told me that I remember,” Biden replied.

Although they were contradicted by his main generals, some reporters appeared to defend Biden’s remark.

HALEY CALLS ON BIDEN TO EXPLAIN THE CONTRADICTIONS BY THE GENERALS; SAID MILEY SHOULD KNOW NOT TO TALK TO AUTHORS

Washington Post fact-checker Glen Kessler suggested Biden was “imprecise” and questioned whether leaving 2,500 troops in Afghanistan would have kept the country stable.

“Here is the rest of his response which was taken from that RNC clip, presumably because it suggests he was answering a question about whether advisers said the situation would remain stable with 2,500 troops,” Kessler tweeted. “FWIW, Biden’s answers are imprecise and it’s unclear what exactly he’s referring to. He could answer the 2,500 troop question. People should watch the full clip and judge for themselves.”

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin responded to New York Times reporter Peter Baker’s tweet highlighting the Biden administration’s contradiction.

“George’s full question: ‘Your military advisers didn’t tell you,’ No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. The situation has been stable for several years. “It was the last sentence that was wrong and the generals probably never told Biden,” she wrote.

A few reporters have attempted to distract from the fact that Biden is being contradicted by his generals by referring to former President Trump and his initial plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

“Contradicting Trump and his supporters who say he would have done differently or better, Milley confirms that he was ordered in 2020 to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by January 2021,” the presenter tweeted. CNN Jim Sciutto on the testimony.

HuffPost White House correspondent SV Dáte also defended Biden by tweeting: “Trump really and really wanted to leave Biden with complete disaster in Afghanistan. And he would have evacuated [sic] exactly zero Afghan allies. “

Critics criticized these reporters for their attempts to cover Biden and his administration.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the president on Tuesday and said military advisers were “divided” over whether to maintain a US troop presence in Afghanistan, despite the testimonies of the highest generals.

“At the end of the day, whatever the board is, it’s his decision,” Psaki said. “He’s the commander-in-chief. He’s the president. He makes decisions about what’s in the national interest, and he believed we had to end the war.”

[ad_2]

Source link