Afghanistan: Trump asks what Biden will ‘surrender to next’ and slams him for hiding at Camp David

333

View
comments

Donald Trump is tearing into Joe Biden again with accusations he surrendered to the Taliban and is now hiding at Camp David the Monday after the insurgents’ lightning takeover of Afghanistan in the wake of US troops withdrawing.

‘The outcome in Afghanistan, including the withdrawal, would have been totally different if the Trump Administration had been in charge. Who or what will Joe Biden surrender to next? Someone should ask him, if they can find him,’ the ex-president suggested. 

He also mocked his political rival over current state of the pandemic, saying Biden ‘first surrendered to COVID and it has come roaring back.’

‘Then he surrendered to the Taliban, who has quickly overtaken Afghanistan and destroyed confidence in American power and influence,’ Trump compared. 

A statement later in the morning simply read, ‘Afghanistan is the most embarrassing military outcome in the history of the United States. It didn’t have to be that way!’ 

Biden has been at Camp David, the president’s official country retreat, over the weekend as the Taliban swept over Afghanistan in a stunningly paced offensive and took Kabul Sunday. 

Beyond official statements he has yet to address Americans or the world directly on the scenes of chaos and desperation coming out of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Trump sent out another statement Monday morning hitting at Biden for ‘taking out our military’ before Afghan allies and other civilians were evacuated.

‘Can anyone even imagine taking out our Military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our Country and who should be allowed to seek refuge? In addition, these people left topflight and highly sophisticated equipment. Who can believe such incompetence?,’ he in the follow up before again comparing Biden’s administration to his own.

‘Under my Administration, all civilians and equipment would have been removed,’ Trump said.

But it was Trump’s peace agreement with the Taliban in 2020 that formally set up a full withdrawal of US troops in the first place. 

Biden extended Trump’s initial May 1st deadline for a full military withdrawal, which the former president also criticized at the time.

Meanwhile the Pentagon deployed 6,000 troops to secure the airport for people trying to flee and the White House released a photo of Biden at Camp David, sitting at a wide table by himself and appearing to have a virtual meeting with various officials including Kamala Harris. 

‘This morning, the President and Vice President met with their national security team and senior officials to hear updates on the draw down of our civilian personnel in Afghanistan, evacuations of SIV applicants and other Afghan allies, and the ongoing security situation in Kabul,’ the picture was captioned on Twitter.

Biden’s relative silence on foreign disputes comes as US COVID cases continue to strain hospitals across the South as more unvaccinated Americans fall ill to the more severe Delta variant.

The number of children hospitalized with COVID hit a record high of 1,902 on Saturday.   

Trump‘s latest criticism of Biden comes after he urged his political rival to ‘resign in disgrace’ on Sunday amid the Taliban’s takeover.

‘It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan, along with the tremendous surge in COVID, the Border catastrophe, the destruction of energy independence, and our crippled economy,’ Trump said in an email.

He continued perpetuating his claim that Biden won the presidency via election fraud, concluding the email: ‘It shouldn’t be a big deal, because he wasn’t elected legitimately in the first place.’

Trump issued the statement as exclusive DailyMail.com photos showed him arriving at Trump Tower in New York City. 

The Taliban quickly began gaining control of key Afghan cities as Biden held his promise to send the troops home before the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Trump has continued to slam Biden for his handling of Afghanistan. 

Earlier Sunday, he issued another statement denouncing the Biden administration over the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

‘Tragic mess in Afghanistan, a completely open and broken Border, Crime at record levels, oil prices through the roof, inflation rising, and taken advantage of by the entire world—DO YOU MISS ME YET?’ he said in a short emailed statement on Friday.

The Trump administration negotiated the terms of a US withdrawal in talks with the Taliban last year. Now the speed of a Taliban advance has rattled officials three weeks ahead of President Biden’s August 31 deadline to bring all troops home. Biden has repeatedly said he has no regrets about pushing ahead with his timetable.

On Sunday, the Taliban took control of Kabul. The co-founder of the Taliban has been declared the new President of Afghanistan after the terror group announced the 20-year Western occupation ‘is over now’ and proclaimed an Islamic state during a triumphant speech from the Presidential Palace in Kabul.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who fought in the Soviet-Afghan War during the 1980s and helped ex-chief Mohammad Omar create the Taliban in 1994, has already been installed as the head of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, according to reports in the Arab world. 

In a victory speech from Kabul on Sunday, Baradar said: ‘I want to congratulate the Muslim Afghan people on this huge victory, especially the citizens and residents of Kabul, and I also want to advise and demand from all the mujahideen (Taliban fighters) that we have reached a situation that is unexpected and unique, this happened with the help of God and it must not make us arrogant.

‘Before we didn’t have as much responsibility as we do today, because now we are all tested by God, day by day we will get involved in the service of our nation, in providing them with security and hope for their future.

The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera TV that the war is over in Afghanistan and that the type of rule and the form of regime will be clear soon – adding that the Islamist group does not think foreign forces will repeat ‘their failed experience in Afghanistan again’.

Spokesman Mohammad Naeem told the Qatar-based channel: ‘We assure everyone that we will provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions. We are ready to have a dialogue with all Afghan figures and will guarantee them the necessary protection.’

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen vowed there would be ‘no revenge’ against those who worked with the previous Afghan government, but refused to guarantee that Afghans would be allowed to flee. ‘Our policy is that no one should leave the country’ he told the BBC. ‘We need all Afghans to stay.’

Taliban fighters stormed the ancient palace on Sunday and demanded a ‘peaceful transfer of power’ as Kabul descended into chaos, with U.S. helicopters evacuating diplomats from the embassy in scenes echoing the 1975 Fall of Saigon which followed the Vietnam War. 

 U.S.-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country for Tajikistan, effectively ceding power to the Taliban and bringing the 20-year Western occupation of Afghanistan to an end, while thousands of Afghan nationals rushed to the Pakistan border in a bid to escape Islamist rule.

Mr Ghani said in a Facebook post that he escaped Afghanistan to ‘prevent a flood of bloodshed’, claiming ‘countless patriots would be martyred and the city of Kabul would be destroyed’ if he had remained. He did not disclose details on his current location.

Foreigners in Kabul were told to either leave or register their presence with Taliban administrators, while RAF planes were scrambled to evacuate 6,000 British diplomats, citizens and Afghan translators, and the British Ambassador was moved to a safe place. The U.S. and French Ambassadors have already been evacuated as the U.S. rushes to rescue more than 10,000 of its citizens.

Bagram airbase was also surrendered to the Taliban by Afghan troops, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO to build up Afghan security forces. Upon its takeover, hundreds of Taliban and Islamic State terrorists being held prisoner there were freed.

Commercial flights were later suspended after sporadic gunfire erupted at the airport, according to two senior US military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations. Evacuations continued on military flights, but the halt to commercial traffic closed off one of the last routes available for Afghans fleeing the country. 

As night fell, Taliban fighters deployed across Kabul, taking over abandoned police posts and pledging to maintain law and order during the transition. Residents reported looting in parts of the city, including in the upscale diplomatic district, and messages circulating on social media advised people to stay inside and lock their gates.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan had ‘accelerated’ the current crisis and announced his government’s priority is to get UK nationals out ‘as fast as we can’ after chairing an emergency Cobra meeting in Downing Street. He also vowed that the Middle Eastern state must not become a ‘breeding ground for terror’ again.

Biden vowed that any action that puts Americans at risk ‘will be met with a swift and strong U.S. military response’. He also swiped his predecessor Trump for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, claiming he left the group ‘in the strongest position militarily since 2001’.