ABC News calls Pentagon press briefing on Afghanistan bombing 'tone-deaf'

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12 service members confirmed killed in Kabul terror attack

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ABC News' Martha Raddatz called Thursday's Pentagon press briefing on the recent attack on American service members as "tone-deaf" and acting "as if nothing catastrophic happened."

On Thursday, 12 U.S. service members were killed in an explosion at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. This airport was being used as an evacuation site for Afghan allies and American citizens to escape the country.

Following the attack, General Kenneth McKenzie held a press conference to discuss details on this bombing as well as other deadly attacks.

12 US SERVICE MEMBERS KILLED IN KABUL AIRPORT EXPLOSION, OFFICIALS SAY: LIVE UPDATES 

ABC News anchor David Muir relayed the events of the press conference to cohost Martha Raddatz in an ABC News Special Report, but it quickly turned into a criticism of the briefing itself. Muir labelled the conference "too operational in nature" in reference to what he believes is "a very dark day for this country.

Raddatz followed up by labelling the event as "tone-deaf" with McKenzie attempting to emphasize the number of citizens evacuated in tangent with the service members killed. 

"I had been to many Pentagon briefings and I have to say this seemed particularly tone-deaf," Raddatz said. "General McKenzie made that horrid announcement. 12 service members dead, 15 wounded. He made the announcement and moved on to what he considered good news, how many they’ve evacuated. And those numbers are great, but it’s as if nothing catastrophic had happened just hours before."

She further explained that President Joe Biden will be the prime focus of criticism considering his call to withdraw troops from Afghanistan to "protect" them.

"And you’ve got to know, you certainly know this David, that the focus is going to be on President Biden who said he wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan to protect our troops. And now we’ve had this mass casualty event. I think it’s the worst mass casualty event in Afghanistan involving our service members in about a decade," Raddatz said.

Raddatz then commended the troops for attempting to keep peace and navigate people through the evacuation process. However, she also acknowledged that there "are clearly major flaws" in the current military approach.

Raddatz said "There are clearly major flaws. They had been watching this for more than a week. This threat was evident for more than a week. General McKenzie there at the end talked about all the equipment we have there, surveillance, drones, and everything else, but they were unable to stop this."

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Gen. McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, announced at the press conference that efforts to evacuate citizens from the airport will continue despite these bombings. He also revealed that the military has been sharing "information with the Taliban" to help prevent such attacks.