John Kirby Says The Purpose Of The Afghan Withdrawal Report Is “Not Accountability”
Reporter: John, who’s going to get fired over this?
MR. KIRBY: 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. It’s — the purpose of it is —
Reporter: Military leaders were giving advice.
MR. KIRBY: — purpose of it is —
Reporter: It doesn’t sound like it was good.
MR. KIRBY: — to study lessons learned.
Reporter: Do you admit that the intel was bad? So how can President Biden ever trust, when they come into the Oval Office with the PDB, that anything in there is legit?
MR. KIRBY: What I said was —
Reporter: “That intelligence is a mosaic.” What if the mosaic — all the pieces are incorrect?
MR. KIRBY: What I said was intelligence is hard business … This document and this effort isn’t about accountability today. It’s about understanding.
Reporter: But it doesn’t seem like after the country has had a couple months to review this, and as the government has, people don’t have an issue with the decision to order troops out of Afghanistan. It is with the way that this President ordered it done. … 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?
MR. KIRBY: It doesn’t mean —
Reporter: You’re proud of that?
MR. KIRBY: Proud of the fact that we got more than 124,000 people safely out of Afghanistan? You bet … But does that mean that everything went perfect in that evacuation? Of course not … So, yeah, there’s a lot to be proud of, Peter.
John Kirby Can’t Answer If Biden Believes Any Mistakes Were Made In Withdrawal From Afghanistan
blame Trump, had to take 8 months to plan
Reporter: John, thank you for being here. 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.”
MR. KIRBY: Yeah.
Reporter: Let me just follow up with you on something that Ed was asking, which is: Does the President take responsibility for the withdrawal and everything that happened thereafter?
MR. KIRBY: … if you just look, Kristen, at what’s happened since we pulled out of Afghanistan and see what the United States military has been better able to do on behalf of the American people, I think there’s only one conclusion you can come to and that it was the right decision.
Reporter: And as you list these things that —
MR. KIRBY: But — but wait — before I answer — but that do- — but you need to remember … He had to deal with it based on what he inherited.
Reporter: And yet, he had eight months to plan. Did he not?
MR. KIRBY: He had to take eight months to plan … yes, he took some time to — to work through that.
Reporter: What does the President believe — what mistakes does the President believe he made?
MR. KIRBY: I’m not going to speak for the President on — on that score. What I can tell you is that, again, we’ve done a good-faith effort here to work through the lessons learned of this withdrawal … and acted in accordance with the best judgment of his advisors, particularly military advisors, as things were unfolding.
Reporter: 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?
MR. KIRBY: 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 —
Reporter: But not about this report.
KIRBY: — about — he has talked many times about his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, his belief that it was the right decision.
WH Spox John Kirby On Afghan Withdrawal: “For All This Talk Of ‘Chaos,’ I Just Didn’t See It”
Reporter: Specifically, how does the — how is the Trump administration responsible for the disorganized and chaotic process of evacuation and determining who gets to board these evacuation flights? lI mean, you mentioned that there’s a review in terms of the lessons learned. Can you share some of those lessons learned, just specifically in terms of who gets to board evacuation flights?
KIRBY: … defend that airport from external threats. That’s pretty remarkable. And so, for all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it, not from my perch. At one point during the evacuation, there was an aircraft taking off full of people, Americans and Afghans alike, every 48 minutes. And not one single mission was missed. So, I’m sorry, I just won’t buy the whole argument of chaos.
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WH: Purpose Of Afghan Withdrawal Report Is Not Accountability, Can’t Answer If Any Mistakes Were Made