SAT WHAT, MR. PRESIDENT?

Biden tells reporter 'I can't remember' the first part of his question, calls the Qatar capital 'Daho' and is criticized for being in an 'alternate reality' on the Taliban in another concerning speech

 

Daily Mail

August 20. 2021

 

 

President Biden took questions from a room full of reporters Friday for the first time since the Taliban's lightning-fast takeover of Kabul, but at times the 78-year-old commander-in-chief flubbed his words and offered a series of chaotic contradictions.

Biden proclaims al-Qaeda is 'gone' in Afghanistan, in direct contradiction with the Pentagon's assessment 'What interest do we have in Afghanistan with al-Qaeda gone?' Biden rhetorically asked the White House press corps. That assertion stands in direct contradiction to a report from the Defense Department Inspector general on Operation Freedom's Sentinel, covering April 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021. 'The Taliban continued to maintain its relationship with al-Qaeda, providing safe haven for the terrorist group in Afghanistan,' the report read. 

A key provision of the US withdrawal under the Taliban peace deal was that the Taliban would not harbor terrorists, thus the report signals the US upheld its end of the deal even though the Taliban did not. 

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, shortly after the president's news conference, disputed his claim al-Qaeda had no presence in Afghanistan, but said: 'there isn't a presence significant enough to merit a threat to our homeland.'  

Following Biden's speech, Fox News national security reporter Jennifer Griffin blasted Biden for living in an 'alternate reality.'

'I'm having a hard time digesting what we heard because I couldn't fact-check it fast enough in real-time because there were so many misrepresentations of what is happening on the ground,' she said, adding that it was 'an alternate reality presented by the White House.'

As he turned to leave the briefing, a reporter yelled out: 'Why do you continue to trust the Taliban, Mr. President?'

'This is about America leading the world, and all our allies have agreed to that. And by the way, before I made this decision, I was at the G7, as well as met with our NATO partners, and I told them all, every one of them knew and agreed with the decision I made, to jointly end our involvement in Afghanistan. The first part of your question was — I can't remember now,' the president told a reporter.