‘You Keep Changing the Subject’: CNN’s Tapper Grills Sec. of State Blinken Over Scramble to Evacuate U.S. Forces, Allies From Afghanistan
CNN’s Jake Tapper raked Secretary of State Antony Blinken across the coals for deflecting from the core of his questions about Afghanistan’s imminent fall to the Taliban.
Tapper began the interview on Sunday’s State of the Union by rolling footage of President Joe Biden claiming in July that it was “highly unlikely” that the Taliban would overrun the country. Tapper also noted that Biden has now redeployed troops to Afghanistan to oversee the evacuation of American personnel from the country, and he turned to Blinken to ask, “How did President Biden get this so wrong?”
Blinken answered by insisting that the U.S. succeeded in its original mission from when American forces invaded Afghanistan 20 years ago in the aftermath of 9/11. He also referred to Biden’s defense of America’s withdrawal, saying “the idea that the status quo could have been maintained by keeping our forces there I think is simply wrong.”
Tapper stayed on this topic as he remarked that the issue at hand is not just the withdrawal, but the chaos that has ensued over how to save Americans and their Afghani allies who remain in the country. He also continued to interrogate Blinken over how much blame Biden has for the situation.
The idea that President Biden ordered 2500 service members out and now is sending up to 5,000 service members back in, does that not — on its face — show the exit was ineptly planned and, again…You told me a few months ago on this program that you thought it was entirely likely the Taliban would be taking over the country. But President Biden just last month, “the likelihood there is going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” He was wrong.
Blinken insisted that Biden was trying to prepare the withdrawal in a way that the U.S. would be able to adjust to changing developments, but Tapper pressed onward.
“Why not have the troops in there and let that happen first before taking them out?” Tapper asked. Blinken reiterated that “that status quo was not sustainable,” and the U.S. was looking at another war with the Taliban if they stayed in.
“You keep changing the subject to whether we should be there forever,” Tapper said. “I’m talking about whether or not this exit was done properly, taking out all the service members before those Americans and those Afghan translators could get out. That’s what I’m talking about, then you have to send people back in. That’s the definition of ‘oh, we shouldn’t have taken those troops out because now we have to send twice as many back in.'”
The interview continued with Blinken claiming that the government’s top priority is speeding up the process to evacuate people from the country before they are at risk from the Taliban.
“Why are you just doing that now?” Tapper asked, noting that he has been warning about this serious issue for weeks.
Watch above, via CNN.
