Biden to Address Afghanistan Crisis Today at White House

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden will return to the White House from Camp David on Monday to address the American people about an unfolding crisis in Afghanistan that has shaken perceptions of his leadership.

Biden will speak at 3:45 p.m. from the East Room of the White House, where less than a week ago he said he did not regret his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the country.

Since then, Taliban fighters have swept into control in cities across Afghanistan, prompting the collapse of the country’s government.

Scenes of panic and desperation at Kabul’s airport intensified pressure on Biden to explain how his administration had misjudged conditions in the country. Thousands of Afghans swarmed a U.S. Air Force plane on the tarmac as American troops arrived in hopes of securing the final avenue of escape.

The crisis has thrown Biden’s administration into political peril, as critics have seized on his disproven assertions that the U.S. drawdown would be orderly and that Afghans who had worked alongside American troops as translators would be protected.

“Afghanistan is the most embarrassing military outcome in the history of the United States,” former President Donald Trump said in a statement on Monday. “It didn’t have to be that way!”

Some of Biden’s Democratic allies in Congress joined in the criticism.

“Our military presence in Afghanistan should not have continued indefinitely, but the withdrawal of U.S. troops should have been carefully planned to prevent violence and instability, and to ensure that the hard-fought progress gained over the past two decades -- particularly when it comes to Afghan women and girls -- would not be lost,” said Senator Tom Carper of Delaware.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking in an interview Monday morning with NBC News, said Biden stood by his decision and blamed Afghan security forces, who “ultimately decided that they would not fight for Kabul and they would not fight for the country.”

“It is heartbreaking to see what is happening in Kabul, but the president had to make the best possible choice he could and he stands by that decision,” Sullivan said.

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