Joe Biden says he is “rejecting” a damaging report from the U.S. Army that details the Democrat president’s failures during the disastrous withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
The report reveals an investigation found that the Biden administration suffered a series of errors that deepened the deadly crisis in Kabul.
The news comes as Biden’s approval rating continues to plummet.
Polls show a total collapse of support for the Biden-Harris administration across multiple key voting demographics.
Most frightening for Biden was a CNN poll that showed 56% of voters approve of nothing he has done in office.
The CNN reporter breaking down the poll said a number that large includes a “decent amount of Dem voters.”
On Thursday, Biden sat for an interview with Democrat-friendly reporter Lester Holt of NBC.
However, the interview did not go as the White House planned.
Holt was all over Biden about inflation, throwing back the presdient’s earlier statements about it being temporary at him.
The line of questioning caused Biden to snap and call Holt “a wise guy.”
Holt then grilled Biden on the debacle in Kabul after the Army report came out very critical of how the Biden administration handled the pullout.
The report claimed Biden’s team and the people at the State Department were in denial about how fast Kabul would fall.
Biden responded by saying he is outright “rejecting” the report.
When questioned about the military officials’ accounts in the Army report, Biden said, “I’m rejecting them.
“Look, there is no good time to get out, but if we had not gotten out, they acknowledged we would have had to put a hell of a lot more troops back in.
“We would have to significantly increase the number of troops and we’re back in this war of attrition.
“And so this is a much wiser thing to do.”
Asked if he was rejecting the accounts or conclusions of the report by Holt, Biden said, “Yes, I am.”
“I am rejecting them,” he said.
WATCH:
According to Axios, “Senior Biden administration officials were still discussing and assigning basic actions involved in civilian evacuation the day before Kabul fell, according to leaked notes from a White House Situation Room meeting.
“The notes show just how unprepared the Biden administration was hours before the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan’s capital.
Navy Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, the top US commander in Afghanistan during the withdrawal, told investigators for the report Biden is now rejecting that the military would have been “much better prepared to conduct a more orderly” operation “if policymakers had paid attention to the indicators of what was happening on the ground.”
Vasely “was trying to get the Ambassador to see the security threat for what it really was,” a military official whose name is redacted from the report said.
“The embassy needed to position for withdrawal, and the Ambassador didn’t get it,” the official added.
“Everyone clearly saw some of the advantages of holding Bagram, but you cannot hold Bagram with the force level that was decided,” Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of US Central Command said. He added:
“But remember, what did happen is we came together and executed a plan.
“There are profound frustrations; commanders, particularly subordinate commanders, they see very clearly the advantages of other courses of action.
“However, we had a decision, and we had an allocation of forces.
“You proceed based on that.
“There might have been other plans that we would have preferred but when the president makes a decision, it’s time for us to execute the president’s decision.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, “We are committed to, and are intensely engaged in, an ongoing review of our efforts during the evacuation, the assessments and strategy during the conflict, and the planning in the months before the end of the war.
“We will take those lessons learned, and apply them, as we always do, clearly and professionally,” he said.
