Thread by @JerryDunleavy

McCaul & House Foreign Affairs have now released the transcript for the interview with Jen Psaki, so I can now explain what a horrible wasted opportunity this was, how basic questions weren’t even asked, how key parts were botched, & how she was largely let off the hook. Thread…

https://twitter.com/houseforeigngop/status/1826768295619690593

Right off the bat, let’s talk about how the House Foreign Affairs press release has a *dead link* for the Psaki transcript, so it is *impossible* to read the transcript via the Committee website. Baffling, but okay. Luckily, FreeBeacon has the transcript.

freebeacon.com/wp-content/upl…

I will note the Committee’s questioning eventually got Psaki to offer something of an apology to the Gold Star families for lying in her book that Biden didn’t check his watch during the dignified transfer at Dover, altho at first she repeatedly dodged apologizing (see below).

After a break in questioning (& prob after talking to her lawyers & thinking on how bad it’d look in the press if she refused to apologize), Psaki did eventually offer a sorry-if-you-were-offended type apology to the Abbey Gate Gold Stars for lying about Biden’s watch checking…

Psaki also seemed to admit that she found the decision by President Biden to set the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks as the deadline for the full U.S. troop withdrawal to be a bad idea, although she basically claimed she had no idea why that date was picked to begin with.

Okay, let’s talk about how the Committee screwed up this Psaki interview, starting with another example of them running cover for military commanders — thus failing to properly pursue answers & accountability (& letting Psaki wriggle out of a dumb claim she made from the podium.)

In the House Foreign Affairs Committee press release today (image on the left), they highlight Jen Psaki’s quote from the podium from 8/31/2021 where Psaki claimed that “I don’t think anyone assessed that they would collapse as quickly as they did. Anyone. Anyone in this room. Anyone in the region. Anyone anywhere in the world. If you have anyone who did, I’d be surprised.”

The Committee then claims that “Ms. Psaki was then presented by the committee with contradictory assessments by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Milley and former CENTCOM Commander General Miller.” Let’s put aside the fact that the Committee incorrectly identifies General Miller here as the Commander of CENTCOM (he wasn’t — that instead was General McKenzie — and Miller rather was the Commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan). The problem with the Committee claiming this is that neither Milley nor Miller have ever said that they had predicted that the Taliban would take over Afghanistan in August 2021 — Miller warned that the collapse would happen hard & fast and had very dire warnings about the trajectory of Afghanistan, but the Committee should not be pretending that U.S. military commanders like Milley accurately predicted exactly when the Taliban takeover would happen — because the U.S. military simply failed to predict this. The failure to see how quickly the Taliban takeover was unfolding was a failure by the Biden White House, the NSC, the State Department, the intelligence community, and, yes, the military — and it is false for the Committee to claim otherwise.

I had recommended (image on the right) that, if the Committee wanted to press Jen Psaki on this claim of hers, then the Committee should use predictions that had been made by outside officials & experts — predictions that pretty much nailed how quickly the Taliban would take over. This included me proposing entering as exhibits predictions by the Long War Journal’s Bill Roggio, by Matt Zeller, and by Afghan Defense Minister Bismillah Khan. (I’ll note that I myself also came very close to predicting how quickly the Taliban would take over, guessing that they would have taken over Afghanistan by 9/11/2021, which was the original full withdrawal deadline before it was moved to 8/31/2021 — but don’t worry, I didn’t recommend that the Committee enter my tweet as an exhibit).

But instead of citing assessments by outside officials & experts who pretty much predicted the timing of the Taliban takeover, the Committee cited assessments by military officials who were ***wrong***. This unnecessarily ran cover for U.S. military failures ***and*** allowed Psaki to avoid being properly challenged on this point.

Just a huge mistake.

Now let’s talk about some questions that I insisted the Committee ask Jen Psaki but which the Committee refused to include in our question outline for the transcribed interview with her. Among the questions the Committee refused to ask were questions about Biden’s mental fitness!

I proposed we question Psaki on the role played by Kamala in the Afghan debacle. I thought it especially important since at the time Biden had just announced he wasn’t running for re-election & it was clear Kamala would be the nom. The Committee asked zero questions about Harris.

People tend to forget this, but during the 2020 campaign, now-President Biden repeatedly said he’d leave a small number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to conduct CT ops against Al-Qaeda & ISIS-K. It was a lie. I said we should ask Psaki why Biden lied. The Committee didn’t ask it.

Zal Khalilzad played a very negative role in Afghanistan in 2020. But Biden kept Zal on to continue his “vital work.” I thought Psaki should be asked why Biden would retain the architect of the Doha Agreement if Biden thought the deal was so bad. The Committee wouldn’t ask it.

Psaki in 2021 touted Biden’s “commitment” that “Afghanistan can never again become a haven for terrorists.” Afghanistan has again become a haven for terrorists. I said we should ask Psaki if she believed Biden had followed thru on this commitment. The Committee wouldn’t ask it.

Psaki in 2021 claimed “no” Biden wouldn’t be OK w/ Taliban ruling Afghanistan — yet Biden let it happen. Psaki also claimed in 2021 that Biden made his withdrawal order with a “clear eyed assessment” of the impact it’d have. I said Psaki should be asked about this. Didn’t happen.

Psaki in 2021 said it was the position of the Biden-Harris Admin that “a diplomatic path is the only path forward.” I said we should ask Psaki questions about whether the Biden-Harris Admin truly actually thought the Taliban cared about diplomacy. These questions weren’t asked.

Psaki repeatedly said in 2021 that Biden believed “there is not a military solution” in Afghanistan. But the Taliban didn’t agree there was no military solution & the Talibs successfully pursued a military solution in 2021. I said Psaki should be asked about it. But nope no dice.

Psaki claimed in 2021 that Bagram would’ve taken 5000 U.S. troops to keep open. McKenzie said Bagram could’ve been maintained w/ 2500 U.S. troops & Command Sgt. Major Smith said it would’ve taken just 2,000. I said Psaki should’ve been grilled on it— yet zero questions on Bagram.

Psaki made claims in 2021 about terrorism threats around the world in an effort to downplay how important counterterrorism still needed to be in Afghanistan. ISIS-K is now a global threat. I said Psaki should be asked about it. The Committee refused to ask about ISIS-K even once.

Psaki claimed in summer 2021 there were “nearly 300,000 currently-serving members” of Afghan military & police forces. This was *absurd* — ANDSF was never 300,000, & especially not amid a U.S. withdrawal & Taliban offensive. I said Psaki should be asked about it. Didn’t happen.

Psaki dodged answering questions in 2021 about the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program. The Biden-Harris Admin ended up leaving tens of thousands of Afghan allies behind. I said that Psaki should be asked about this. The Committee asked her *zero* questions about Afghan SIVs.

Psaki repeatedly suggested in August 2021 that the Taliban cared about “legitimacy” & repeatedly claimed in August 2021 that the U.S. had serious “leverage” over the Taliban. I think the Taliban is the Taliban is the Taliban, but I thought Psaki should be asked about it. But no.

Psaki claimed on August 10 & 11 of 2021 (just 5 & 4 days before the fall of Kabul) that the Taliban takeover was “not inevitable.” It was clear by then that the Taliban would be taking over Afghanistan in very short order. I said Psaki should be asked about it. But didn’t happen.

Psaki claimed on August 11, 2021 that the U.S. “will continue to provide close air support” & would “make sure the [Afghan] Air Force functions are operable.” U.S. air support was insufficient & U.S. had pulled maintenance for Afghan aircraft. Psaki should’ve been asked. Wasn’t.

Psaki refused to comment in Aug 2021 about McKenzie turning down the Taliban’s offer in Doha on Aug 15 to allow the U.S. to secure Kabul for the evac. It remains an open question what role Biden may have played in this. I said we should ask Psaki. The Committee declined to do so.

Psaki did an interview with Axelrod when she talked about “a person hanging off of a plane trying to get out of Afghanistan.” This was a deliberate downplaying of it — multiple Afghans were hanging from the C-17 & multiple Afghans fell to their deaths. She wasn’t asked about it.

Psaki claimed in August 2021 that the vetting for all Afghan evacuees was strong. This is simply not true — there were serious problems with & gaps in the vetting process. I said Psaki should be asked about this. The Committee asked her exactly zero questions about the vetting.

When Psaki was asked in Aug 2021 about possibility of collusion between Taliban & ISIS-K in Abbey Gate attack, she downplayed it. In fact, the Haqqani Taliban & ISIS-K have collaborated in the past. I said Psaki should be asked about that & about Haqqanis at HKIA. Wasn’t asked.

Psaki offered very tough language on behalf of Biden in August 2021 related to Biden vowing revenge against ISIS-K after the Abbey Gate attack. The U.S. has conducted ***zero*** strikes against ISIS-K after August 2021. I said Psaki should be asked why. The Committee didn’t ask.

Psaki in August 2021 made a number of false or misleading claims about the U.S.’s over-the-horizon capabilities in Afghanistan. I said that Psaki should be asked about the nonsense she peddled from the podium on this. The Committee didn’t ask any questions about over-the-horizon.

Psaki was asked in Aug 2021 about abandonment of Bagram & about if Biden would ask any generals to resign after the Abbey Gate attack. Psaki said no. I said we should ask Psaki why Biden had held zero people accountable. The word “accountability” doesn’t appear in the transcript.

Biden White House called the Taliban “businesslike” & “professional.” Psaki was asked in 2021 why WH would say something so dumb & she dodged. I said we must press her on it. Questions on it actually made it into the Psaki outline but chief investigator failed to ask them anyway.

To conclude, House Foreign Affairs refused to ask a host of questions it should have (Kamala’s role in Afghanistan, Biden’s mental fitness, & a pile of false claims Psaki made from the podium in her effort to gaslight America) & it botched many questions it did ask. A failure.

Let me just stress again — this is a press release touting the public release of Psaki’s transcribed interview, but the link to the transcript is *broken* & *leads nowhere* so you *can’t actually read the transcript here*. Indicative of the sloppiness of the whole investigation.

https://twitter.com/houseforeigngop/status/1826768295619690593

Looks like my thread at least got the Committee to fix the broken link — so you can now read Psaki’s interview here:



I’d suggest the Committee consider listening to all my other suggestions & critiques too — never too late to start doing the right thing.foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/upl…