White House downplays division with army over withdrawal from Afghanistan

McKenzie also admitted to discussing with Biden a similar recommendation to leave a few thousand troops in the field of General Scott Miller, commander of US forces in Afghanistan until July. Miller detailed this recommendation to Congress during a closed-door testimony last week.

“I was present when this discussion took place, and I have no doubts that the President heard all of the recommendations and listened to them very carefully,” McKenzie said Tuesday.

Just before the briefing, Psaki highlighted part of Biden’s mid-August interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos in which the president admitted that military advisers were “divided” over whether to leave a force behind. residual in Afghanistan rather than allowing the United States to withdraw completely. .

“There was a range of views, as evidenced by their testimony today, which were presented to the president, which were presented to his national security team, as one would expect,” Psaki said. to reporters on Tuesday.

However, also during the interview cited by Psaki, Stephanopoulos pressed Biden directly on the matter: “So nobody said that – your military advisers didn’t tell you,” No, we should just keep 2,500 soldiers. . It has been a stable situation for several years. We can do that. Can we continue to do this’? ”

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

Nonetheless, the Biden administration firmly believes that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was the right decision, even amid stinging criticism from both sides of the aisle about the chaos that unfolded during the operation, a posture that Psaki reiterated from the podium on Tuesday.

“He didn’t think it was in the best interests of the American people, or in the interests of our troops,” to maintain forces in Afghanistan, she said.

She also downplayed the divergence between testimony from military leaders and the White House on the exit strategy, saying Biden was not looking for “a group of yes men and women.”

“At the end of the day, whatever the board is, it’s his decision,” Psaki said.