Tuesday, 28 September 2021 (YJC)_ The White House announced that President Joe Biden did not think leaving troops in Afghanistan was in interest of American people.
The White House was on the defensive on Tuesday after several top US generals testified before Congress that they had advised US President Joe Biden not to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan - advice he seemed to deny getting in an interview last month.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki's daily press conference began on Tuesday with a sharply worded question by a reporter: “Did the president mislead the American public about the advice of his military advisers?”
The question was in reference to an August 19 interview with ABC journalist George Stephanopoulos in which Biden seemed to say his generals advised him against pulling all US troops out of Afghanistan, which the administration did on August 31.
“[Y]our top military advisors warned against withdrawing on this timeline. They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops,” Stephanopoulos asked Biden at the time.
“No, they didn't. It was split. Tha- that wasn't true. That wasn't true,” Biden replied.
“They didn't tell you that they wanted troops to stay?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“No. Not at - not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a timeframe all troops. They didn't argue against that,” Biden answered.
“So no one told - your military advisors did not tell you, ‘No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It's been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that?’" the ABC journalist asked again.
“No. No one said that to me that I can recall,” Biden said.
Psaki, after reading from the transcript, told the White House press corps how to interpret the exchange.
“What should everybody take from that? There was a range of viewpoints … presented by his national security team, as he asked for … It was also clear - clear to him that that would not be a long-standing recommendation, that there would need to be an escalation, an increase in troop numbers," she said.
"It would also mean war with the Taliban, and it would also mean the potential loss of casualties. The president was just not willing to make that decision, he didn’t think it was in the interest of the American people or the interest of our troops," Psaki added.
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