White House NatSec Advisor Addresses Not Evacuating Afghan Allies Sooner: ‘These Are Reasonable Questions’

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan continued to defend the Biden administration’s approach to Afghanistan following the chaos over the past few days.

On Sunday the Taliban took over after President Ashraf Ghani fled, and there have been disturbing scenes of Afghans trying to leave, with some even clinging to military planes.

One of the biggest criticisms facing the Biden administration is the failure to evacuate more U.S. embassy officials and American allies — including interpreters who have aided U.S. forces — earlier.

“The images from the past couple of days at the airport have been heartbreaking,” Sullivan said at Tuesday’s White House briefing. “But President Biden had to think about the human costs of the alternative path as well, which was to stay in the middle of a civil conflict in Afghanistan.”

He acknowledged there are serious questions “about whether we should have drawn down our embassy and evacuated our Afghan allies earlier,” saying, “These are reasonable questions.”

“We did dramatically accelerate the SIV process and move out a substantial number of SIV applicants and their families,” Sullivan said. “But the Afghan government and its supporters, including many of the people now seeking to leave, made a passionate case that we should not conduct a mass evacuation lest we trigger a loss of confidence in the government.”

“Yes, there were chaotic scenes yesterday, but as Admiral Kirby said, even well-drawn plans don’t survive first contact with reality, and they require adjustments,” Sullivan added at one point.

You can watch above, via CNN.

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