Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, told Newsmax Friday that the Biden administration's report on the chaotic Afghanistan military withdrawal, which blamed former President Donald Trump for how things unfolded, includes "inconvenient truths" regarding President Joe Biden's culpability in the botched evacuation in August 2021.
"I'm almost speechless here," Fallon said on Newsmax's "Spicer & Co." "It's not a shock that a Democratic National Security Council will come out with a report that exonerates a Democratic administration for whom they have to work.
"The fact of the matter is there are inconvenient truths here. It was Joe Biden's decision to complete the withdrawal from Afghanistan in August in the middle of the fighting season.
"Fighting in Afghanistan is seasonal because it's such a harsh climate, rugged terrain," he said. "If you're going to withdraw, the smartest way — and when to do it, frankly — is before winter begins, right at the beginning of winter to give this embryonic regime in Kabul a chance to succeed. They didn't do that."
The White House released the 12-page report Thursday, saying that Trump's planned withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war left the incoming administration "severely restrained" in how the withdrawal could be executed.
"As a result, when President Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021, the Taliban were in the strongest military position that they had been in since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country," the report read.
"At the same time, the United States had only 2,500 troops on the ground — the lowest number of troops in Afghanistan since 2001 — and President Biden was facing President Trump's near-term deadline to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021, or the Taliban would resume its attacks on U.S. and allied troops."
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that the incoming Biden administration was not given any plans by Trump's team to pull out of the country.
"The president's transition team asked to see plans for that removal. They asked to see plans for a security transition to the Afghan government," Kirby said Thursday. "And they asked to see plans to increase the processing of special immigrant visas. None were forthcoming."
Fallon, however, said that it was Biden's decision to draw down to just 600 troops by the August withdrawal that allowed the Taliban to quickly retake the country and saw a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021, that killed 13 service members.
"Joe Biden went with the State Department's recommendation of 600 troops instead of 2,500," Fallon said. "When you conduct a withdrawal from a country, you don't have the military go first. You have them go last, and that decision cost American lives."
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