Kirby on Biden's Afghanistan Exit: 'For All This Talk of Chaos, I Just Didn't See It' (April 6, 2023)

Nineteen months after 13 American service members were killed at Kabul’s airport, the Biden White House released its own review of the Afghanistan withdrawal. A reporter Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Kristen read the first page back to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on April 6, 2023.

“It seems like page after page, this places the blame on the previous administration, starting with page one. ‘President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdraw from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,’” the reporter said, according to the official White House transcript [1].

“Does the President take responsibility for the withdrawal and everything that happened thereafter?” the reporter asked [1].

“He’s the Commander-in-Chief. And he absolutely has responsibility for the operations that our men and women conduct and the orders that he gives. And he continues to believe that the order to withdraw from Afghanistan was the right one,” Kirby said [1].

Kirby then ran through decisions he pinned on the previous administration. The reporter cut in: “And yet, he had eight months to plan. Did he not?” [1]

“He had to take eight months to plan because we — whatever plans there might have been done by the previous administration, we didn’t see,” Kirby said. “So, yes, he took some time to — to work through that. I don’t think he can be blamed for that.” [1]

“What mistakes does the President believe he made?” the reporter asked. “I’m not going to speak for the President on — on that score,” Kirby said [1].

The video above shows the exchange at the April 6, 2023, briefing. Quotes are from the official White House transcript, the White House review and the House Foreign Affairs Committee [1][2][3].

”Why Are We Not Hearing Directly From the President?”

A reporter asked why Biden was not presenting the review himself. “John, just finally, given the enormity of this report, given the American lives that were lost, why are we not hearing directly from the President?” [1]

“We are putting this forth for you and for Congress to- — today. And I think you’ve heard from the President. He has talked many times —” Kirby began. “But not about this report.” the reporter cut in [1].

Kirby went on: Biden “has talked many times about his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, his belief that it was the right decision.” [1]

“Who’s Going to Get Fired Over This?”

A reporter Kirby called Peter asked: “Thanks. John, who’s going to get fired over this?” [1]

“Peter, the purpose of the document that we’re putting out today is to sort of collate the chief reviews and findings of the agencies that did after-action reviews. The — it’s not — the purpose of it is not accountability,” Kirby said [1].

“Do you admit that the intel was bad?” the reporter asked. “What I said was intelligence is hard business, and they get it right a lot too. There were some pieces here that weren’t accurate,” Kirby said [1].

“This document and this effort isn’t about accountability today. It’s about understanding,” he said later [1].

The reporter pressed. “There were children being killed. There were people hanging off of Air Force jets that were leaving. And you’re saying that you guys are proud of the way that this mission was conducted?” [1]

“Proud of the fact that we got more than 124,000 people safely out of Afghanistan? You bet. Proud of the fact that American troops were able to seize control of a defunct airport and get it operational in 48 hours? You bet,” Kirby answered [1].

”What Is the Definition of a ‘Top National Security Official’?”

A reporter Kirby called Ed went to page eight of the review. “‘The President received and accepted the unanimous advice of his top national security officials to end the evacuation on August 31st.’ What is the definition of a ‘top national security official’? Because we know, for example, that General McKenzie, who was then head of CENTCOM, has said he objected to aspects of this,” the reporter said [1].

“I am loath to get into the individual advice that individual members of the President’s team give him. That would not be appropriate for me,” Kirby said [1].

The reporter then noted the review had “four pages here of blame on the previous administration” and asked: “Nowhere in here does there appear to be any expression of accountability or mistake by either the President himself or others. Is there any for what happened?” [1]

“I would argue that the very fact that we voluntarily — the agencies voluntarily decided to go conduct after-action reviews — nobody told them to do that,” Kirby said [1].

”I Just Didn’t See It”

Another reporter asked about “the disorganized and chaotic process of evacuation and determining who gets to board these evacuation flights.” [1]

“And so, for all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it, not from my perch,” Kirby said. “So, I’m sorry, I just won’t buy the whole argument of chaos. It was tough in the first few hours. You would expect it to be.” [1]

“Anything but Helpless”

A reporter Kirby called James summed up the review. “President Biden inherited flawed policies from his predecessor, President Biden was deprived of the requisite transition papers he should have received from his predecessor, and President Biden was deprived of accurate information from President Ghani about his intentions, and President Biden was deprived of accurate assessments from the intelligence community,” the reporter said [1].

“I just don’t understand why you’re willing to depict your boss, the Commander-in-Chief, as so helpless in this instance,” the reporter said, noting that Biden “had every option to increase the troop size there during his eight months in office.” [1]

“The President was anything but helpless,” Kirby answered. “And some of those assessments turned out to be wrong, but it wasn’t for a lack of alacrity and energy and interest by the President in pulsing and questioning and analyzing all the way through.” [1]

“So given the conditions, your position is everything went about as well as it possibly could have?” the reporter asked. “My — it’s not my position, James,” Kirby said [1].

”Including With Regard to Abbey Gate”

Kirby addressed the suicide bombing at the start of the briefing. “The President, at the time, made it clear to operational commanders that force protection remained his highest priority,” he said. “He trusted the best judgment of his leaders on the ground to make all operational decisions, including with regard to Abbey Gate.” [1]

“The President and the First Lady will always honor the sacrifices of the 13 service members who were killed in that attack,” Kirby said [1].

Asked why the President was not presenting the review himself, Kirby said: “We are putting this forth for you and for Congress to- — today. And I think you’ve heard from the President. He has talked many times —” The reporter answered: “But not about this report.” [1]

“Disgraceful and Insulting”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, fired back that day. “John Kirby’s comments during today’s White House press briefing were disgraceful and insulting. President Biden made the decision to withdraw and even picked the exact date; he is responsible for the massive failures in planning and execution,” McCaul said [3].

He said the administration only shared its after-action reports under pressure. “It is also unfortunate it took my subpoena threat to prompt the administration to finally provide the classified after-action reports from the Afghanistan withdrawal,” McCaul said [3].

By the Numbers

13: U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate on Aug. 26, 2021 [1].
124,000+: people Kirby said were evacuated [1].
8 months: the planning time a reporter said Biden had [1].
12: pages in the White House review [2].

What Happened Next

Congress kept digging. McCaul called on the administration “to declassify as much as possible for the American public” and said “Congress must be given access to the full and complete record of documents from the withdrawal in order to get the answers on why the withdrawal was such a disaster.” [3]

For Jean-Pierre defending Biden’s rare news conferences four days later, see HYGO News’ page on April 10, 2023.