Biden dismisses concerns about Afghans trying to flee the Taliban

August 19, 2021 Amber Coakley US 0

President Joe Biden speaks from the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Aug 18, 2021, on the COVID-19 response and vaccination program. U.S. health officials Wednesday announced plans to offer COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines’ effectiveness is falling. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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UPDATED 10:15 AM PT – Thursday, August 19, 2021

Joe Biden dismissed concerns about fatalities of fleeing Afghans during a heated interview about the Taliban takeover. On Wednesday, Biden was asked about recently surfaced videos, which show residents falling to their death as they cling to evacuation planes. The Democrat brushed this off as something that happened “four-to-five days ago’” when it was, in fact, only two.

EXCLUSIVE: Pressed on whether the U.S.’s exit from Afghanistan could have been handled better, Pres. Biden tells @GStephanopoulos, “The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing—I don’t know how that happens.” https://t.co/mH1AyWI5lb pic.twitter.com/osAwdDQy2L

— ABC News (@ABC) August 18, 2021

Biden was then grilled for his judgment in July when he predicted a tragedy like this was highly unlikely.

“The idea that the Taliban would takeover was premised on the notion that somehow the 300,000 troops we had trained and equipped was gonna just collapse, they were gonna give up,” he previously stated. “I don’t think anybody anticipated that.”

Biden went on to say he does not believe there was a better way his administration could have withdrawn troops from Afghanistan. However, a Trump-era program, which could quickly airlift Americans from Afghanistan, was found to have been scrapped by his administration.

According to the National Pulse on Wednesday, Biden shut down the State Department’s Contingency and Crisis Response Program earlier this year. The program, implemented by the Trump administration, was designed to provide diplomatic, medical and logistical support to Americans abroad to prevent Benghazi-style situations. Biden’s officials reportedly defunded that program in June as part of its reversals of President Donald Trump’s policies.