Trump Defends His Administration’s Negotiations With the Taliban: ‘I Had a Very Strong Conversation’
Former President Donald Trump appeared on Fox News Tuesday night to talk with Sean Hannity about Afghanistan, and he addressed his administration’s talks with the Taliban.
President Joe Biden has received a great deal of bipartisan criticism over the chaos in Afghanistan. In his statement his past Saturday, Biden said, “I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor—which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019—that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021 deadline on U.S. Forces.”
Trump publicly touted the deal his administration made as recently as June, and some of the commentary excoriating Biden has included criticism of that initial Trump administration agreement with the Taliban.
Hannity started his interview by bringing up the “warnings that you gave personally to the Taliban” and asking about the Biden administration in part blaming his predecessor.
Trump went after the Biden administration before addressing his administration’s actions:
We had a great deal, we worked on it very hard. Mike Pompeo, a brilliant guy, and many others worked on it endlessly. Meetings with the Taliban, of course you have to meet with the Taliban. They’re the ones that you’re negotiating with. I spoke on numerous occasions to the head of the Taliban, and we had a very strong conversation. I told him upfront, I said, ‘look, before we start, let me just tell you right now that if anything bad happens to Americans or anybody else or if you ever come over to our land, we will hit you with a force that no country has ever been hit with before.’
Hannity asked who he said this to.
“To Mullah Baradar, who is probably the top person — nobody really knows who the top person is, but I would say that’s probably the top person,” Trump answered. “I had a very strong conversation, I also had a good conversation with him.”
You can watch above, via Fox News.
