***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
The president of Afghanistan has reportedly fled the country, the United States flag was taken down at the embassy and secreted away with the ambassador, and throngs of people were seen on video desperately trying to climb into the back of American military cargo planes before takeoff with reports the airport was under fire from the Taliban. That’s the state President Biden left Afghanistan in and CNN’s Jake Tapper was out to hold him to account during Sunday’s State of the Union, thrashing Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the process.
Tapper came out of the gates on fire, calling out Biden and Blinken for pulling out of Afghanistan so “hastily and ineptly” and demanded to know how they got this “so wrong”:
Secretary Blinken, as you know, the Taliban has closed in on Kabul. We are evacuating the embassy, burning documents, Biden increased troops deploying to the country twice in three days just to rescue those there. This is not just about the overall idea of leaving Afghanistan. This is about leaving hastily and ineptly. Secretary Blinken, how did President Biden get this so wrong?
Blinken tried to blame former President Trump for Biden’s disastrous leadership, suggesting they were in a bind because of the original May 1 deadline. But Tapper rightly called him out for being misleading. “You did blow through that deadline. We did have troops there after May 1. But again, the issue here is not just the withdrawal of U.S. forces. It's how they were withdrawn. The rapidity, the hastiness,” he said.
(...)