White House National Security Council communications adviser John Kirby defends the withdrawal from Afghanistan
The White House pushed back on a report released by the GOP on Sunday that criticized President Biden’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
On the anniversary of 9/11, White House National Security Council communications adviser John Kirby dismissed the concerns of military veterans critical of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, writing in response to a Fox News Digital press inquiry that there's "no use" weighing in on the veterans' views.
"Obviously no use in responding. A ‘handful’ of vets indeed and all of one stripe," Kirby said in a "reply all" email chain Wednesday afternoon that appeared to be intended for White House staffers, but which also included Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital had reached out to the White House earlier Wednesday afternoon regarding critical comments from four veterans, including Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who blasted Kirby for his Monday press conference that they said provided "cover" for the Biden administration's 2021 withdrawal.
Included in that initial reachout were quotes from the four veterans, and Fox News Digital asked the White House if it had any comment to include on the vets' blistering criticisms of Kirby and the White House's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. The email chain was forwarded to White House staffers on the National Security Council, before Kirby replied to all on the chain that there's "no use in responding."
Kirby's message was sent in error, with him following up with a Fox News Digital reporter, "Clearly, I didn’t realize you were on the chain." Kirby sent the email while traveling with President Biden on the anniversary of 9/11.
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White House National Security Council communications adviser John Kirby speaks during a daily press briefing in Washington, D.C., on July 31. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The veterans quoted in the email lambasted Kirby for "deflecting" from the Biden administration's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, following House Republicans releasing a scathing report this week following the anniversary of the botched withdrawal.
"The bottom line is that the Biden-Harris administration chose politics over strategy, and Kirby, who I wouldn’t trust to guard my grocery list, is now trying to cover for them," Mills, an Army veteran, said in comments to Fox News Digital.
The Republican chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, released a report this week disputing President Biden's claims that his hands were tied to an agreement made under former President Trump’s administration for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under an established deadline in 2021. The report added that State Department officials had no plan for helping Americans and allies out while there were still troops in the region to protect them.
McCaul's report argued that the administration failed to adequately respond to terror threats ahead of the terrorist bombing at Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghan civilians, and that the Taliban likely had access after the withdrawal to $7 billion in abandoned U.S. weapons, and up to $57 million in U.S. funds that were initially given to the Afghan government.
Kirby joined the White House’s press conference on Monday and defended the Biden-Harris administration’s withdrawal, while arguing the new report "says little or nothing new."
Kirby went on to list the "actual facts" surrounding the withdrawal, including arguing that the Trump administration cut a deal with the Taliban that "mandated a complete U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan."
"President Biden, for his part, faced a stark choice when he came to office: Abide by the flawed agreement and end America’s longest war, or blow up the deal, extend the war, and see a much smaller contingent of American troops back in combat with the Taliban," Kirby said. "He chose the former and was able to buy additional time to prepare for that withdrawal all the way into summer, and we, as a nation, are safer for it."
Mills said Kirby was "deflecting" from the White House’s "failed foreign policies," while pointing to the House Foreign Affairs Committee threatening to subpoena Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year regarding a July 2021 dissent cable by 23 diplomats that offered avenues to mitigate disaster as the Taliban’s power grew ahead of the U.S. pulling out of Afghanistan.
"Once again, John Kirby is deflecting from the Biden-Harris administration's failed foreign policies. If they were truly transparent, why did HFAC have fun threatening contempt of Congress for Secretary Blinken for intentionally withholding DoS dissent cables from 23 U.S. Embassy diplomats warning that the administration's strategy would allow the Taliban to advance and lead to the collapse of the Afghan government and American lives to be lost? They knew this and tried to cover it up. This wasn’t ignorance, it was intentional and putting political optics above strategy/safety with a complete lack of transparency. This administration knew exactly what they were doing, tried to cover it up, and got caught. Worse, their actions cost the lives of 13 American service members and severely damaged our credibility with allies. It welcomed aggression from adversaries and showed weakness geopolitically," Mills said.
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Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., addresses the media outside of Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on behalf of former President Trump on May 14. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Mark Geist, a Marine veteran and Benghazi annex security team member who helped rescue more than 100 Americans from the Taliban in 2021, told Fox News Digital that Kirby delivered a "one-sided presentation of facts" and argued the U.S. wanted to end the war in Afghanistan to "start and fund the war in Ukraine."
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"In the press conference, John Kirby delivered a one-sided presentation of facts and falsehoods regarding the recent House Report on Afghanistan. I'll start with where Mr. Kirby finished, which was likely the only thing he said that was completely true: they pulled out of Afghanistan because they wanted to start and fund the war in Ukraine, fully aware that the American people would not tolerate being involved in two wars again," Geist said.
A U.S. Marine lifts an infant over a fence of barbed wire during the evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 19, 2021. (Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images)
Following the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members, Biden-Harris administration critics such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the withdrawal paved the way for adversaries such as Russia to invade Ukraine. The war in Ukraine is ongoing, as is Israel's war against Hamas.
Another veteran, Stuart Scheller, author of "Crisis of Command," told Fox News Digital that the botched withdrawal "will be studied for generations as the epitome of failure at the National Security Council level."
Scheller argued that President Biden launched a "PR stunt" when he announced the U.S. would be totally withdrawn from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 of that year, the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
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Taliban fighters celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, on Aug. 14. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
"He picked the arbitrary date of Sept. 11 as a PR stunt, which required the American military to pull out during the Taliban’s peak fighting season. He decided to abandon Bagram Air Base, despite the Trump plan outlining the need to hold this key piece of terrain. He left 7,000 prisoners in the prison at Bagram, which the Taliban later freed. Biden allowed the use of the Taliban as external security. He authorized a strike on the ‘enemy’ after the suicide attack that only killed women and children. He left billions of dollars of equipment in the hands of the Taliban and needlessly allowed the murder of thousands of Afghan partners," he said.
Scheller was arrested and ultimately discharged from the Marines after blasting top military brass in a series of viral videos for the botched withdrawal.
"I am proud that I identified the mistakes and poor planning in real time. It still pains me that it cost me my career. John Kirby, a former Navy admiral, represents the morally weak military officer class willing to parrot narratives for individual advancement. These politicians in uniform demonstrate, time and time again, that they are terrified of honest assessments of failure," he said.
Chad Robichaux, a former Force Recon Marine and an Afghanistan veteran, added in a comment to Fox Digital that Kirby has traded an "oath to the Constitution and the American people" for "loyalty to D.C. elites and partisan politics."
Vice President Kamala Harris is embraced by President Biden during a campaign event at IBEW Local Union #5 in Pittsburgh on Sept. 2. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
"The fact is that Biden and Harris chose to go against the advice of their Joint Chiefs, military, and intelligence advisers, abandoning Afghanistan and giving up the most strategic military stronghold on the global landscape — Bagram Air Base, which sits between Iraq, Iran, Russia and China. Worse, they did so before evacuating Americans or our allies. We left behind 20 million women and girls to be sexually enslaved. We left billions of dollars in sensitive equipment and technology. We left our biometric systems that identify our allies. And since then, we’ve been paying the Taliban up to $87 million a week, mostly in cash, to jihadists sanctioned by the U.S. government, four of whom are on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list," he said.
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National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House on May 28. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
"For him to lie to the American people he wore the uniform to serve, in order to cover up the atrocities of politicians, is disgraceful," he added.
Following Kirby's accidental reply all email, his office offered an on-the-record statement regarding his Monday press conference, saying he stands by his "comments in the briefing room."
"While I acknowledge not every veteran agrees with them, I stand by my comments in the briefing room. What was cherry-picked and selective was the report itself. And what’s most important is that America’s longest war is over and those still serving in uniform are better positioned to meet the threats we face today," Kirby said.
House Democrats on the Foreign Affairs Committee released their own memo shortly after the Republican report this week, accusing Republicans of criticizing the Biden administration for the withdrawal for political purposes.
"When former President Trump took office, there were approximately 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan," Rep. Greg Meeks, D-N.Y., wrote. "Days before leaving office, the former President ordered a further reduction to 2,500. President Trump initiated a withdrawal that was irreversible without sending significantly more American troops to Afghanistan to face renewed combat with the Taliban."
For veterans critical of the withdrawal, they lamented Afghanistan falling back into the hands of terrorists.
"Afghanistan has gone from four al Qaeda training camps to 52, and the Biden-Harris White House is funding it with U.S. taxpayer dollars," Robichaux said in his comments to Fox Digital.
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"So tell me, John Kirby," added Robichaux, saying he'd never call the spokesman "admiral," "how is this in the best interest of American national security, or the world for that matter?"
Fox News Digital's Greg Wehner and Landon Mion contributed to this report.
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