CNN’s Dana Bash pressed Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Sunday over Vice President Kamala Harris’ role in the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
Harris faced pushback over the disastrous withdrawal, which resulted in the deaths of 13 service members outside Kabul International Airport. During a segment of “State of the Union,” Bash asked Buttigieg how Harris should address her role, as she previously confirmed she was the “last person in the room” with President Joe Biden when the decision to pull troops and American citizens was made.
“Let me ask you about something that you mentioned. You said that the timing of this report is political. Couldn’t both things be true? That it is political and politically advantageous for Republicans because the withdrawal was such a mess with regard to how — not whether the U.S. should come out — but how it actually happened,” Bash said. “And it is a political problem for the Biden Administration, even privately the people I talked to admit that. So how does Kamala Harris address that since she was vice president?”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul announced in August that the committee will be releasing a detailed report on Monday from their three-year investigation into the withdrawal, stating it will serve “as an indictment on the administration’s reckless refusal to properly prepare for the withdrawal.”
“Well I think however you view the things that are going to emerge in the report, what’s clear is that this, America’s longest war, needed to be brought to an end. And the question at stake in every presidential election is what’s going to happen next. She is clear about the need to make sure that a place like Afghanistan never again becomes a haven for attacks on the homeland. That’s a counterterrorism policy and posture that is different from an open-ended presence over there,” Buttigieg responded.
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“But also with all of the threats that America faces, whether it’s making sure that Afghanistan is never again base for an attack on the homeland, whether it’s what‘s going on in the Middle East, whether it’s what‘s happening with China, whether it’s the latest evidence of Russian interference in our own affairs or any number of other issues we need to make sure that the next president of the united it is states is somebody who is equipped to handle that with a view toward what is best for the American people and what is best for America’s troops,” Buttigieg continued. “Not somebody who is obsessed with what is best for him, which I think is exactly what we‘re going to see on display from Donald Trump in the debate in a couple of days.”
Harris criticized former President Donald Trump last weekend for filming during his attendance at the third anniversary ceremony in Arlington Cemetery, which she notably did not attend. In response, eight Gold Star families posted videos on X, slamming Harris and stating they had invited Trump to the event and had not heard from either her or President Biden.
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