Defense &
National Security

Defense &
National Security

The Big Story

Trump sidesteps role in Afghanistan exit, hits Harris

Former President Trump is trying out a campaign strategy to attack Vice President Harris as a straw man for the failures surrounding the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan.

© AP

Republicans and Democrats have traded blame over which administration holds responsibility for failing to plan and execute the drawdown of the 20-year military operation in Afghanistan, a chaotic and deadly event that cast a dark shadow over President Biden’s term in office but succeeded in ending America’s longest war.

The end result was the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul in the face of the Taliban’s takeover over two fraught weeks at the end of August 2021. The U.S. exit was marred by masses of people overwhelming the Kabul airport; a devastating terrorist attack that killed 13 U.S. soldiers, among others; and an evacuation crisis that put at risk thousands of Afghan allies and those vulnerable to violence from the Taliban.

The Trump campaign has sought to shift blame from Biden to Harris by bringing up an April 2021 interview the vice president gave to CNN, where........

© The Hill