Biden Defends Decision To Withdraw U.S. Troops From Afghanistan

The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

CNN

News

3.6 • 857 Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2021

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Joe Biden is defending his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan despite the dangerous gains the Taliban would get from it. "I will not send another generation of Americans to Afghanistan." Biden says that the military mission in Afghanistan will end on August 31. Biden also says that the U.S. has achieved its objectives in America's longest war. Biden spoke about the Taliban saying that a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan "is not inevitable," but it is highly unlikely that it will ever be a unified country. Biden says "I do not trust the Taliban," and calls the reporter's question about Biden's trust "silly." Biden says that it's up to the Afghan people to decide their future as the U.S. military withdraws and the Taliban makes gains. "There is a home for you in the United States," Biden says to Afghan interpreters whose lives are in danger. According to the White House no "mission accomplished" moment has happened to mark the U.S. exit from Afghanistan because the war "has not been won militarily." However, Biden says that the withdrawal from Afghanistan is "the right decision and, quite frankly, overdue." Biden says that the U.S. is not responsible for civilian deaths if the Taliban takes over Afghanistan. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:46.0	Barclays, here for every goal.
0:50.0	What happening now, President Biden defends the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, sounding
0:56.8	defiant about his decision to end America's longest war, even as the Taliban, are resurgent and gaining ground.
1:04.4	Also tonight, new evidence of the escalating danger
1:07.9	from the delta variant, coronavirus cases jumping
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1:30.0	local officials this hour. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States
1:34.8	and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, you're in the situation room. Let's begin over at the White House with C&S Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff
1:49.1	Zellie.
1:50.1	Jeff, President Biden, he's clearly adamant, totally adamant, about all U.S. forces leaving
1:56.4	Afghanistan in the coming weeks.
1:58.4	Well, if President Biden did offer a robust defense of his decision, He said the two overriding objectives had been
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