Aug. 20, 2021: Obama douses D.C.’s party scene

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POLITICO

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🗓️ 20 August 2021

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

A pair of must-reads on Afghanistan overnight: — A WSJ scoop that casts perhaps the harshest light yet on the administration’s performance, by Vivian Salama: “An internal State Department memo last month warned top agency officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the U.S.’s Aug. 31 troop withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the document. — A POLITICO tick-tock on “five days of panic” inside the Biden administration as Afghanistan unraveled and crisis ensued, by Alexander Ward, Lara Seligman, Andrew Desiderio, Alex Thompson and Bryan Bender: “[B]y Thursday morning in Washington, more population centers were falling to the Taliban by the hour, including the provincial capitals of Ghazni and Badghis. And, did Barack Obama ruin the party in D.C.? His over-the-top 60th birthday party in Martha’s Vineyard first drew criticism for the size of the guest list during the Delta surge — and then after he slimmed it down, the former president was blasted for throwing an opulent party during a pandemic. It didn’t matter that he was following CDC protocols for an outdoor event. The bashing of the bash is having a chilling effect on the D.C. party scene as (especially Democratic) pols and their staffers scramble to figure out when and where — or even if — they can party again. Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Presented by Climate Power
0:01.5	Hey, good morning, Playbookers. It's Friday. August 20th, I'm Rogumono Volan.
0:07.0	And this is your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.
0:13.9	A pair of most reads in Afghanistan from overnight in today's playbook.
0:17.3	First up, a scoop from Vivian Salima at the Wall Street Journal on the administration's
0:21.5	performance. Here are a couple key quotes. An internal State Department memo last month
0:26.1	warned top agency officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the U.S.'s August
0:32.1	31st troop withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar
0:36.9	with the document.
0:38.2	The classified cable represents the clearest evidence yet that the administration had been warned
0:42.7	by its own officials on the ground that the Taliban's advance was imminent in Afghanistan's military
0:47.6	may be unable to stop it. In all, 23 U.S. NBC staffers, all Americans, signed the July 13th cable.
0:55.5	The U.S. officials said there was a rush to deliver it given circumstances on the ground
0:59.2	in Kabul. And a Politico-Tik-Talk on five days of panic inside the Biden administration
1:04.6	as a country unraveled and crisis ensued. In the Situation Room, Defense Secretary
1:09.3	Lloyd Austin was now recommending the President Joe Biden
1:12.3	send in troops to evacuate the embassy and protect the main international airport in Kabul.
1:18.0	National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan asked each cabinet member in the meeting to weigh in.
1:22.4	They unanimously agreed.
1:24.5	That was the quote, oh shit moment, said a U.S. official. It was now officially a crisis.
1:29.8	A couple other stories worth noting. From the New York Times, sluggish visa process strands
1:34.0	thousands of Afghans who worked for U.S. Wall Street Journal, Putin rejected role for U.S.
	...

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