DAVID MUIR: Vice President Harris, thank you. President Trump, your response to her saying that you began the negotiations with the Taliban.
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, thank you. So if you take a look at that period of time, the Taliban was killing our soldiers, a lot of them, with snipers. And I got involved with the Taliban because the Taliban was doing the killing. That’s the fighting force within Afghanistan. They don’t bother doing that because you know, they deal with the wrong people all the time. But I got involved. And Abdul is the head of the Taliban. He is still the head of the Taliban. And I told Abdul don’t do it anymore, you do it anymore you’re going to have problems. And he said why do you send me a picture of my house? I said you’re going to have to figure that out, Abdul. And for 18 months we had nobody killed. We did have an agreement negotiated by Mike Pompeo. It was a very good agreement. The reason it was good, it was – we were getting out.
Emphasis added. Trump negotiated the surrender of Afghanistan with the Taliban, releaseing 5,000 Taliban prisoners and drawing down troops to an unsustainable level before leaving office. To protect the remaining troops (and the Afghani government) would have required Biden deploying all new troops and commiting to extending the occupation. Biden chose not to do that, and finished Trump’s surrender.
You know thinking about his answer, he didn’t care about Afghanistan not falling. All he “cared” about was Americans not dieing, which didn’t work anyway because he telegraphed everything. He served up Afghanistan on a platter.
I guaran-goddamn-tee he’d feed a thousand American soldiers to Rottweilers if it would get him more power and fewer consequences for his venality. All he wanted was to sabotage Biden. Nothing more.
That’s true too. You can see it in the timing so that it would happen right at the start of Biden’s term. If it went well, Trump could take the credit. If it went bad, then it’s Biden’s fault.
It’s always been the right’s strongest play: sabotage the ship on the way out. It works especially well economically because of the lag time between policy and impact.
So if you take a look at that period of time, the Taliban was killing our soldiers, a lot of them, with snipers. And I got involved with the Taliban because the Taliban was doing the killing.
Hmm, so context made it significantly worse this time.
Yes.
Emphasis added. Trump negotiated the surrender of Afghanistan with the Taliban, releaseing 5,000 Taliban prisoners and drawing down troops to an unsustainable level before leaving office. To protect the remaining troops (and the Afghani government) would have required Biden deploying all new troops and commiting to extending the occupation. Biden chose not to do that, and finished Trump’s surrender.
You know thinking about his answer, he didn’t care about Afghanistan not falling. All he “cared” about was Americans not dieing, which didn’t work anyway because he telegraphed everything. He served up Afghanistan on a platter.
I guaran-goddamn-tee he’d feed a thousand American soldiers to Rottweilers if it would get him more power and fewer consequences for his venality. All he wanted was to sabotage Biden. Nothing more.
That’s true too. You can see it in the timing so that it would happen right at the start of Biden’s term. If it went well, Trump could take the credit. If it went bad, then it’s Biden’s fault.
It’s always been the right’s strongest play: sabotage the ship on the way out. It works especially well economically because of the lag time between policy and impact.
Hmm, so context made it significantly worse this time.
Yeppers.