During a press briefing on Thursday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby shockingly claimed that President Joe Biden was not responsible for leaving U.S. military equipment in the hands of the Taliban, and essentially dismissed the idea of holding anyone accountable for the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
Thursday was the day before a major holiday, Good Friday, and thus is the perfect day for the Biden administration to release information that they wanted to keep quiet — using what is known as a “major holiday news dump.”
The decision to release the 10-page summary of the Biden administration’s internal review of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal just before the weekend and a major holiday was so egregious that even the left-wing media called them out on it.
“Why today? Is this all we get? Is this a response to the studies that were done by the agencies or is this considered a summary?” CBS White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe asked Kirby, calling the move “the very definition of a modern major holiday news dump.”
“This is the result of months and months of work by individual agencies,” the Pentagon spokesman objected.
CBS's @EdOKeefe SLAMS the Biden WH & John Kirby for releasing a report on the Afghanistan withdrawal was sent to us "about 10 minutes before the briefing began, with little notice": "It's the very definition of a modern major holiday news dump…after months of requests" pic.twitter.com/GaZpssi6Ck
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2023
O’Keefe later pressed Kirby about the lack of accountability in the documents — pointing to “4 pages of blame” toward the Trump administration and stating that there does not “appear to be any expression of accountability or mistake by either [Biden] or others.”
CBS's @EdOKeefe: "There's 4 pgs of blame on the [Trump] administration…Nowhere…does there appear to be any expression of accountability or mistake by either [Biden] or others. Is there any"?
"Kirby: "I would argue that…we…decided to go conduct after-action reviews…" pic.twitter.com/U3JZx2tDCi
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2023
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy also questioned Kirby about whether there will be consequences for anyone regarding the botched withdrawal.
“Who’s going to get fired over this?” Doocy asked.
“The purpose of it is not accountability,” Kirby replied.
DOOCY: "Who's going to get fired over this?!"
KIRBY: "The purpose of it is not accountability." pic.twitter.com/uPl6O9LrVN
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 6, 2023
Kirby actually went on to claim that the Biden administration has no responsibility for leaving behind millions of dollars in military equipment to be seized by the Taliban — instead laying the blame on the Afghans.
“It doesn’t seem to address the $7 billion in military hardware and technology that was left in Afghanistan for the Taliban…does [Biden] take responsibility for leaving all or some of that?” a reporter asked.
“You know who is responsible for that equipment? The Afghans,” Kirby responded.
Reporter: “It doesn’t seem to address the $7 billion in military hardware and technology that was left in Afghanistan for the Taliban…does [Biden] take responsibility for leaving all or some of that?”
Kirby: “You know who is responsible for that equipment? The Afghans.” pic.twitter.com/CXu3n6qMsd
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 6, 2023
As The Right Scoop noted: “Kirby’s suggestion that Biden’s hands are clean over leaving all of this equipment behind in the hands of terrorists is absolutely ludicrous.”
“Biden ignored predictions by his own staff saying the Taliban would take over in less than two weeks,” the outlet stated. “Biden also tried to pressure the Afghan president to make it look like the Taliban weren’t winning in July of 2021.”
