meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Daily Signal

‘Punch in the Gut,’ Afghanistan Veteran Says About Seeing Taliban Takeover

The Daily Signal

The Daily Signal

Politics, News, Government, Daily News

4.81.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Aug. 15 marked two years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan after a nearly two-decade war.  For James Hasson, co-author of “Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End” and an Afghanistan veteran, seeing the Taliban takeover “was a punch in the gut.”  “And I know for at least all the other Afghan veterans that I’ve spoken to, it was a similar punch in the gut for them, as well,” says Hasson, who rose to the rank of Army captain. “And especially then seeing the [Biden] administration repeatedly say that, ‘The Taliban were now our partners,’ that they were being ‘businesslike and professional,’ when of course this is the same Taliban that we just spent 20 years fighting.” “I lost people I know over there, or people I know passed away over there,” Hasson adds. “And a lot of other people in my circumstances who served there had the same kind of experience, and it’s a very difficult thing to reconcile. And writing this book was an absolute honor, but it was difficult also to do, in part just to see that be absolutely whitewashed.” Hasson, together with co-author Jerry Dunleavy, an investigator for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, joins today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss their book, the No. 1 takeaway they want people to have after reading their book, and the 13 U.S. service members who were killed on Aug. 26, 2021, at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

It's hard to imagine how this withdrawal could have been done in a worse fashion than

0:06.0

the way that President Biden did it.

0:08.9

And so that's the big takeaway here is that I didn't have to happen this way.

0:19.2

This is the Daily Signal Podcast for Monday, August 21st.

0:23.0

I'm Samantha Sharris.

0:24.8

And that was Jerry Dunleavy, co-author of the new book, Cobble.

0:29.1

The untold story of Biden's fiasco and the American warriors who fought to the end.

0:34.8

Jerry, alongside his co-author and Afghanistan veteran James Hassan, joined today's episode

0:40.3

of the Daily Signal Podcast to discuss their new book, the number one takeaway they want

0:45.7

people to have after reading their book, what they found to be the most shocking part

0:50.7

about the fall of Afghanistan through their research for their book and much more.

0:56.7

Before we get to our conversation, I want to tell you a little bit more about another

1:00.4

podcast here at the Heritage Foundation.

1:03.4

How do you take America back?

1:05.6

It starts with ideas.

1:07.1

Ideas we take on offense to reclaim America.

1:10.4

That's why I can't recommend the Kevin Roberts show highly enough.

1:14.7

It's a deep dive on critical issues that plague our nation, plus conversations with high

1:19.6

profile guests from across the movement.

1:22.6

The roadmap on how we can protect our nation from bad ideas and get it back on track.

1:29.5

You can find the Kevin Roberts show wherever you get your podcasts or go to herdage.org

1:35.2

slash podcast.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Daily Signal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Daily Signal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.