Joe Biden crumbled when confronted by reporters with the deaths of 13 troops and 90 people who were slaughtered at Kabul airport on Thursday by two ISIS bomb attacks in the latest tragic episode of his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The 78-year-old President was lost for words at times and and frustrated in others, gripping his notebook and widening his eyes while reporters from a pre-approved list asked him questions for about 30 minutes.
The press conference was at 5pm, nearly eight hours after the two blasts. Biden said nothing all day before the briefing.
When pressed, accepted responsibility for the violence but still stood by his decision to withdraw troops hastily while thousands of Americans remained in the country.
He then tried to blame it all on former President Donald Trump, who made the initial decision to withdraw.
Trump has since claimed the attacks on Thursday would not have happened on his watch, because ISIS and the Taliban were too afraid of the force he would use in retaliation. He has also slammed Biden's team for giving the Taliban a list of Afghan allies they said should be evacuated, calling it a 'kill list' for a group of terrorists who may end up killing them in revenge for their cooperation with the US in the war.
Biden has vowed to hunt down the killers responsible but in the meantime, he still has to get nearly 1,000 Americans out of the country before August 31 - a deadline the Taliban is insisting on.
He didn't know about the kill list when asked at the press conference, but said it 'could exist'.
As has become the norm for Biden, he was given a list of pre-approved journalists to call upon at the press briefing.
Last week, a top cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra, consultant and expert in evidence-based medicine, expressed concerns about Biden's age and mental and physical well being.
President Joe Biden bowed his head as he listened to a question from Steve Doocy of Fox News as he took questions after giving an update on the situation in Afghanistan and the deaths of 12 servicemembers
The President was taking questions from a pre-approved list of reporters but he still widened his eyes and looked lost for words at times throughout the press conference that he had more than 7 hours to prepare for
Biden - at 78 - is the oldest president and has previously suffered two brain aneurysms and a heart condition which makes the muscle beat too fast, causing dizziness and confusion.
After working his way through a list of reporters, Biden called on Fox's Steve Doocy, who also followed Biden on the campaign trail, was one of the six members of the press the president called on
'There had not been a U.S. service member killed in combat since February of 2020. You set a deadline, you pulled troops out, you sent troops back in, and now 12 marines are dead,' he said, using the death toll that has since been updated to confirm an extra fatality.
'You said the buck stops with you. Do you bear any responsibility for the way things have unfolded the last two weeks?'
Biden griped his notebook with both hands and was quick with his first answer.
'I bear responsibility for fundamentally all that’s happened of late,' he responded.
He then tried to blame it on Trump, saying Trump planned to be out by May 1 and that he delayed it.
'You know – I wish one day you'd say these things. You know as well as I do that the former President made a deal with the Taliban that he would get all American forces out of Afghanistan by May 1. In return the was made - that was a year before.
'In return for the commitment, the Taliban would continue to attack others but would not attack any American forces. Remember that? I'm being serious. I'm asking you a question,' he said.
Thursday's terror attack, which Biden attributed to ISIS-K, now poses a major political and military challenge
Injured Afghans in hospital on Friday morning, the day after being struck by two ISIS suicide bombs at Kabul airport
This is the bloody aftermath at Kabul airport on Friday. Blood-soaked clothes and discarded shoes are scattered across the ground in front of a lone Taliban fighter at one of the airport's gates
TODAY and YESTERDAY: Crowds pack into the open sewer which runs around the airport perimeter (left) just hours after it was the scene of carnage when a suicide bomber blew himself up
Afghans desperate to flee the country returned to the fetid canal which runs the perimeter of Kabul airport
ISIS has claimed responsibility for Thursday's sequence of attacks. A fighter is shown in a grab from the group's Telegram account, where they are allowed to operate
'Is that accurate to the best of your knowledge, yes or no,' said Biden, trying to get Doocy to commit to an answer about the
Doocy responded by saying, 'Do you think the people have an issue with the way things have happened?'
Clearly frustrated, he put his head in his hands.
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday night released this statement fuming over Biden's handling of the withdrawal after the first American lives were lost
He lifted his head, took a breath to compose himself and answered.
'I think they have an issue that people are likely to get hurt. Some as we've seen have gotten killed, and that it is messy.
'The reason why, whether my friend will acknowledge it or has reported it, the reason why there were no attacks on Americans as you said from the day I came into office was because a commitment was made by President Trump: I will be out by May 1.
'In the meantime, you agree not to attack any Americans That was the deal. That's why no American was attacked.'
Biden seemed content with his answer and braced for the follow up question. His eyes widened and his body tensed. His hands dropped to in front of his body.
'So you squarely stand by your decision to pull out,' Doocy asked.
The president dug his heels in and demonstratively said, 'Yes, I do.'
'Because look at it this way folks, and I have another meeting for real. But imagine where we'd be if I had indicated on May the first that I was not going to renegotiate an evacuation date. We were going to stay there,' he said.
'I'd have only one alternative: to pour thousands of troops back into Afghanistan to fight a war that we had already won relative to the reason why we went in the first place.
'I have never been of the view that we should be sacrificing American lives to try to establish a democratic government in Afghanistan, a country that has never once in its entire history been a united country.
'And is made up of different tribes who have never ever ever got along with one another. So as I said before, and this is the last comment I'll make, we'll have a chance to talk about this unfortunately beyond because we are not out yet.
Critics are now calling for Biden's resignation or for him to be impeached
'And so, as I said before -- and this is the last comment I'll make, but we'll have more chance to talk about this, unfortunately, beyond, because we're not out yet -- if Osama bin Laden, as well as al Qaeda, had chosen to launch an attack -- when they left Saudi Arabia -- out of Yemen, would we have ever gone to Afghanistan? Even though the Taliban completely controlled Afghanistan at the time, would we have ever gone?
'I know it's not fair to ask you questions. It's rhetorical. But raise your hand if you think we should have gone and given up thousands of lives and tens of thousands of wounded.
'Our interest in going was to prevent al Qaeda from reemerging -- first to get bin Laden, wipe out al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and prevent that from happening again.
'As I've said 100 times: Terrorism has metastasized around the world; we have greater threats coming out of other countries a heck of a lot closer to the United States.
'We don't have military encampments there; we don't keep people there. We have over-the-horizon capability to keep them from going after us.
'Ladies and gentlemen, it was time to end a 20-year war.'
Biden's handling of the withdrawal has been almost universally condemned.
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