It’s one thing for Joe Biden to deliberately lie about the situation in Afghanistan to serve his own self-interests, as he appeared to do during his interview with George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday when he flatly denied that his top military advisors warned against withdrawing on this timeline and insisted “no one is being killed right now.” But when he drops a gross misstatement of fact into the middle of an exchange with the media, it becomes (or certainly should become) a grave concern to all Americans.
Yesterday, as a case in point, he declared during a White House briefing that al Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan. In the video of the incident that follows, you can hear him plainly ask rhetorically, “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone.”
.@POTUS – "What interest do we have in #Afghanistan at this point with Al Qaeda gone.” A DoD IG report from Aug 17, 2021 says "the Taliban continued to maintain its relationship with al-Qaeda, providing safe haven for the terrorist group in Afghanistan." https://t.co/gdXiO8E13l pic.twitter.com/RytywJAqk0
— James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) August 20, 2021
Almost at the very same moment Biden was displaying his ignorance, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed it:
We know that al Qaeda is a presence, as well as ISIS in Afghanistan, and we’ve talked about that for quite some time. We do not believe it is exorbitantly high, but we don’t have an exact figure for you. As I think you might understand, Jen, it’s not like they carry identification cards and register somewhere. We don’t have a perfect picture. And our ability, our intelligence gathering ability in Afghanistan isn’t what it used to be because we aren’t there with the same numbers that we used to be.
Elsewhere within the Beltway, State Department spokesman Ned Price was gainsaying a Biden denial that American citizens and lawful permanent residents have not been able to get through Taliban checkpoints en route to the airport. Watch:
