The Harris-Walz presidential campaign is facing backlash for attempting to shift blame for the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal to former President Donald Trump. In a statement released on Friday, the campaign claimed that Trump had left the Biden-Harris administration with no plan for an orderly withdrawal, only a “dangerous, costly mess.”
However, this assertion is being met with skepticism, given that the withdrawal occurred seven months after Trump left office. Trump had initiated negotiations with the Taliban and reached a deal, but it was not completed by the time he departed in January 2021. Instead, it was President Biden who decided to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan in September 2021, despite the advice of his military advisers.
The withdrawal was marked by chaos and panic, as hundreds of thousands of people scrambled to leave the country. The remaining U.S. troops in Kabul were tasked with carrying out the withdrawal and evacuating civilians from a makeshift fortress at the Kabul International Airport, surrounded by the Taliban. The situation turned deadly when a suicide bomber killed 13 American service members, and a subsequent drone strike mistakenly killed a humanitarian aid worker and his family.
Despite the Biden administration’s refusal to hold anyone accountable for the botched withdrawal, the Harris-Walz campaign is trying to deflect criticism by accusing Trump of politicizing the issue. However, this claim has been met with outrage from the families of the fallen service members, who had invited Trump to attend a ceremony honoring their loved ones.
National security expert Rebeccah Heinrichs has called out the Harris-Walz campaign for attempting to “gaslight the public” by trying to shift blame for the withdrawal. Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller has also pointed out that Harris had previously boasted about being the “last person in the room” when Biden made the decision to withdraw U.S. troops.
