Thread by @jseldin

BREAKING: @StateDept @SecBlinken defends US withdrawal from #Afghanistan, rejects comparisons to #Saigon

"What we've done, what the president has done is make sure that we were able to adjust to anything happening on the ground" Blinken tells @CNNSotu

Additional 5,000 US troops - "We had those forces at the ready, fully prepared to go in the event that this moved in a direction where we needed forces in place to ensure that our personnel was safe and secure..." per @SecBlinken on @CNNSotu

"..., to ensure also that we could do everything possible to bring out of #Afghanistan those Afghans most at risk" per @SecBlinken on @CNNSotu

On pulling troops out to begin, @SecBlinken says on @CNNSotu, "that status quo was not sustainable"

"Like it or not, there was an agreement that the forces would come out on May 1st" per @SecBlinken on @CNNSotu "Had they not only not begun that process, which is what the president did and the Taliban saw, then we would have been back at war with the #Taliban"

"We would have been back at war w/tens of thousands of troops having to go in bcs the 2,500 troops we had there & the airpower would not have sufficed to deal w/the situation especially as we see, alas the hollowness of the the #Afghan security forces" per @SecBlinken on @CNNSotu

More from @SecBlinken on @CNNSotu:

"By the way, from the perspective of our strategic competitors around the world, there's nothing they would like more than to see us in #Afghanistan for another 5, 10, 20 years" he says "It's simply not in the national interest"

#Afghanistan

US not negotiating w/#Taliban, per @SecBlinken

"We haven't asked the Taliban for anything" he tells
@CNNSotu "We've told the Taliban that if they interfere w/our personnel, w/our operations, as we're proceeding with this drawdown, there will be a swift & decisive response"

Getting Americans out of #Kabul "job number one" per @SecBlinken on @CNNSotu "That is our number one mission And that's what we're working on with a whole of government effort"

"We have our personnel at the embassy. We have some American citizens ... if they want to leave, we're we have in place the means to do that" per @SecBlinken

"We have men and women who worked for for us work for the military worked for for the embassy over the years as interpreters and translators" per @SecBlinken "We are doubling down on efforts to get them out if they want to leave"

#Afghanistan

US will "do everything we possibly can for as long as we can to get them out if that's what they want" per @SecBlinken on #Afghans who worked for US but may not qualify for SIVs

Another warning to #Taliban on foreign aid: "none of that will be forthcoming, sanctions won't be lifted, their ability to travel won't won't happen if they're not sustaining the basic rights of the #Afghan ppl & if they revert to supporting or harboring terrorists..."

On reports on what #Taliban are doing in #Afghanistan - "this is heart wrenching stuff" @SecBlinken tells @CNNSotu

#Afghanistan - "This is not #Saigon" per @SecBlinken on @CNNSotu "We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago w/one mission, & that mission was to deal w/the folks who attacked us on 9/11. And we have succeeded in that mission"

This exchange between @POTUS & a reporter from July 8 re #Afghanistan-#Saigon

Pres. Biden said, "There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the -- of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable"