‘A Huge Win For the U.S.’: Bret Baier Breaks News of Al Qaeda Strike, Notes Biden’s ‘Couple of Good Weeks’ on Fox News
Fox News anchor Bret Baier broke the news during The Five that the U.S. military killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri in a drone strike in Afghanistan over the weekend.
“We can confirm from two intelligence sources that al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed by a CIA drone strike in Afghanistan over the weekend. And that is what President Biden will announce from the White House tonight at 730 Eastern Time,” Baier began.
He added that “Zawahiri was a deputy under Osama bin Laden on 911. He is one of the most wanted terrorists, has been for a long time.”
“This is, again, to intelligence sources, saying that this is a big counterterrorism win for the U.S.” Baier continued, noting that Zawahiri took over al Qaeda in June 2011, after the U.S. killed Osama bin Laden.
Baier then took questions from the various co-hosts of The Five.
“This is a huge, huge win for the U.S. and we expect to hear that and where the fight goes from here as far as taking out other terrorists,” Baier explained at one point, adding Biden is certain to offer more details about how the drone strike came to happen.
“So the Biden administration argued after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the one-year anniversary is coming up at the end of the month, which we know did not go well, that they would have the capability with the over horizon drone strikes and CIA intelligence to continue to go after terrorism in Afghanistan,” noted Katie Pavlich, adding, “So can you talk about what that means with that backdrop and given this strike that we’re going to hear more about from the president tonight?”
“That’s a great point, Katie,” Baier responded, adding, “This will be, this will back up some of the concerns that critics of the Biden administration had, that they would not have these eyes to be able to follow up on leads on the ground.”
“If everything we’re hearing is accurate and we believe it to be true. They had some active intelligence from people on the ground that we’re working with and that led to this residence and it led to this CIA drone strike so that over-the-horizon strike capability was there, despite the concerns still about where Afghanistan is with the Taliban and without kind of guidance of of US forces, at least in the over the horizon capability,” Baier added.
Jesse Watters then pivoted to the domestic politics surrounding the news, asking, “Well, obviously a great win for the United States and a clear victory over terrorism. Politically for the president, we’ve just talked about it in the A-block, how the administration and some in the media have been framing this as the resurgence of the Biden presidency and a few things about to be passed in Congress.”
“And now this big strike announcement tonight. Do you think the president is going to look to capitalize on this momentum and head into August after being down for quite some time on the mat?” Watters asked.
“100%, Jesse. I mean, listen, you can’t take away that this has been a couple of good weeks for the president, who has been, we haven’t seen too much of, he’s been behind the scenes with COVID, but he is at least on the precipice of a couple of legislative wins,” Baier responded.
“We don’t know if it’ll all line up, but it seems like it is. And obviously got the CHIPs bill now with this announcement, again, it will be positive. You can’t look at it any other way and it will not take away from the horrible nature in which we got out of Afghanistan. But it will enable them to make the case that they’re still fighting terrorists around the globe,” Baier concluded.
Watch the full clip above via Fox News
