U.S. President Joe Biden To Address Nation Over Afghanistan
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – U.S. President Joe Biden was to return to the White House on Monday to deliver long-delayed remarks on Afghanistan, the White House said.
His decision came as critics questioned his ability to be a commander-in-chief amid scenes reminiscent of the fall of Saigon, Vietnam, in 1975.
On Monday, crowds of people rushed to the airport as the Taliban enforced their Islamist rule over the broader capital and the nation. At least 7 people died with many trying to hold on to a leaving military plane, officials said.
The events undoing two decades of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan came as President Joe Biden and his press secretary Jen Psaki were unavailable for comments over the weekend.
Biden was away from the White House, with the president staying at Camp David – the presidential country retreat in Maryland – as Kabul fell to the Taliban. He had been scheduled to remain at Camp David, where he spent the weekend, until Wednesday. But amid mounting pressure, The White House said Biden would speak in the East Room at 3:45 p.m. local time Monday.
OUT-OF-OFFICE
Both were earlier not expected to return to Washington D.C. for days, and journalists received automated “out-of-office” replies from Psaki in their email box.
A Republican Party staffer, Matt Whitlock, wrote on social networking site Twitter: “This is wild. Biden has no public events tomorrow, he’s out of the White House until mid-week, and Psaki has an out-of-office reply that she’s out for a week.”
Biden said only last month it was “highly unlikely” that Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban after the withdrawal of American forces by the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump among the Republican voices condemning Biden’s alleged failed foreign policy towards Afghanistan and the region.
“What Joe Biden has done with Afghanistan is legendary,” wrote Trump in a statement on Sunday, which called for his resignation. “It will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history!”
The former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, added Psaki and the White House’s silence: “[The] world watches a collapse of 20 years of US involvement in Afghanistan and White House takes a vacation. I guess she will ‘circle back.’”
Biden hasn’t yet spoken publicly about the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. He released a lengthy statement from Camp David over the weekend defending his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. He reportedly held a meeting with senior officials on the security situation in the troubled nation.
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