Chris Cuomo compares Biden to Trump for refusing to admit Afghan withdrawal has gone poorly
Chris Cuomo went after President Biden on Cuomo Prime Time Wednesday, comparing him to former President Trump. Days after the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan turned into absolute chaos in the capital city of Kabul, Biden maintained that there was nothing the U.S. could have done to stop that from happening. Cuomo drew a connection between that and Trump’s inability to admit anything ever went wrong with anything he did as president.
In an interview with ABC News Wednesday, Biden said, “I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that — we’re going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens. I don’t know how that happens.”
Before chastising Biden, Cuomo first pointed out the role Trump played in what is now happening in Afghanistan, as it was his administration that made a shaky deal with the Taliban.
“It is fair to say Biden was given a bad hand by Trump and co.,” Cuomo said. “They made the deal with these terrorists, and then they started a major pull-out even when the Taliban didn't do what they promised in that deal. Trump’s own Secretary of Defense Esper says as much.”
But Cuomo believes Biden should bear some of the blame for sticking with the withdrawal plan, and isn’t buying that none of this could have been avoided.
“Biden could have changed the deal, could have planned differently, could have likely avoided this degree of chaos, and the administration did not. Period,” Cuomo said. “And today, President Biden, frankly, sounded like President Trump, feigning that what we’re all seeing could not have gone any better.”
But former CIA counterintelligence official and CNN contributor Phil Mudd joined the show and said Biden can’t be judged on the chaotic first few days. He said it won’t be known whether or not the withdrawal was a success until it’s over.
“The question here is not whether the first couple days went well,” Mudd said. “They did not … that's not the same question as whether in a month or two, or two years or three years, we look back and say we got out the people we needed to get out. Let's slow down and fix it.”
Cuomo Prime Time airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on CNN.
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