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Today so far
5.08pm EDT
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Botched Afghanistan withdrawal gives Biden biggest crisis of his presidency
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‘I stand squarely behind my decision,’ Biden says after Taliban takes Kabul
4.05pm EDT
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Biden acknowledges ‘rapid collapse’ in Afghanistan after Taliban takes Kabul
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Ambassador to UN tells security council meeting Afghanistan must never be a terrorism base again
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Third Bob Woodward Trump book will also focus on Biden
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Today so far
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5.41pm EDT
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The publishers of the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times asked Joe Biden to move journalists to the US military-protected side of the airport in Kabul, as they evacuate.
“Brave Afghan colleagues have worked tirelessly to help The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal share news and information from the region with the global public. Now, those colleagues and their families are trapped in Kabul, their lives in peril,” the publishers said in a joint statement.
The airport today was overrun with desperate civilians fleeing Kabul after the Taliban’s seized the city. Seven died amid the chaos.
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5.13pm EDT
17:13
Today so far
Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, even after Taliban forces took Kabul and the world saw images of desperate Afghans attempting to flee the country. “I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden says. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.”
At least seven people were killed amid the chaos at Kabul International Airport today, according to the AP. Videos widely shared on social media showed desperate Afghans trying to cling to a US military plane as it departed Kabul and then falling to their deaths.
Administration officials have continued to defend Biden’s strategy in Afghanistan, even in the face of rebukes from Democrats and Republicans over how the troop withdrawal has been executed. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said this morning, “What the president kept saying over and over again is that it was not inevitable Kabul would fall. And it was not inevitable. There was the capacity to stand up and resist. That capacity didn’t happen.”
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at the emergency security council meeting today that other countries should Afghanistan becoming a base for international terrorism again. “We must all ensure Afghanistan cannot ever, ever again be a base for terrorism,” she said in New York.
– Joan E Greve
5.08pm EDT
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Botched Afghanistan withdrawal gives Biden biggest crisis of his presidency
David Smith
Joe Biden was facing the biggest crisis of his presidency on Monday after the stunning fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban caught his administration flat-footed and raised fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Recriminations were under way in Washington over the chaotic retreat from Kabul, which one Biden opponent described as “the embarrassment of a superpower laid low”.
Bowing to pressure, officials said the president would leave his country retreat, Camp David, to address the nation from the White House on Monday afternoon.
The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, ending two decades of a failed experiment to import western-style liberal democracy. Diplomatic staff were flown to safety but thousands of Afghans who worked with US forces were stranded and at risk of deadly reprisals.
As harrowing scenes played out on television – including desperate Afghans clinging to a US transport plane before takeoff – the White House scrambled to explain how the government collapsed so quickly.
Last month Biden, pointing to the Afghan military’s superior numbers and technology, predicted: “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
Unrepentant, the president issued a statement on Saturday, insisting the sudden withdrawal had been the only possible choice.
But the response by Biden, who ran for election promising unrivalled foreign policy credentials after 36 years in the Senate and eight as Barack Obama’s vice-president, was jarring to many. A headline in the Washington Post read: “Defiant and defensive, a president known for empathy takes a cold-eyed approach to Afghanistan debacle.”
Read more:
4.30pm EDT
16:30
Joe Biden acknowledged that his decision to continue with the Afghanistan withdrawal mission would be criticized by many, and he pledged he would not “shrink from my share of responsibility for where we are today”.
CBS News
(@CBSNews)
Biden says he takes “my share of responsibly” for what is happening Afghanistan: “I’m deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision… I cannot and will not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another country’s civil war.” https://t.co/almuVAk3AW pic.twitter.com/xJicyWQTTu
August 16, 2021
“I am president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me,” Biden said.
“I’m deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision to end America’s warfighting in Afghanistan,” the president added. “I cannot and will not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another country’s civil war.”
After concluding his prepared remarks, Biden left the East Room without taking any questions from reporters. He will soon return to Camp David.
4.26pm EDT
16:26
Joe Biden warned that the US would carry out a “swift and forceful” response if the Taliban attacked US citizens or attempted to disrupt evacuation efforts in Kabul.
“We will defend our people with devastating force, if necessary,” Biden said.
The president said that, once all evacuation efforts have been successfully completed, the US will move forward with wrapping up its withdrawal mission and “end America’s longest war”.
“The events we see now are sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver a stable, united, secure, Afghanistan,” Biden said.
“I am now the fourth American president to preside over war in Afghanistan. Two Democrats and two Republicans. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth president.”
4.17pm EDT
16:17
Joe Biden argued that Afghan troops’ failure to defend their country demonstrates why it was the correct course of action to move forward with the US troop withdrawal.
“It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not,” Biden said.
Echoing his message from earlier this year when he announced the planned withdrawal, Biden added, “How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil war when Afghan troops will not?”
4.12pm EDT
16:12
‘I stand squarely behind my decision,’ Biden says after Taliban takes Kabul
Joe Biden continued to defend his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, even after Taliban forces took Kabul and the world saw images of desperate Afghans attempting to flee the country.
“I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden says. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.”
CSPAN
(@cspan)
President Biden: “I stand squarely behind my decision…there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces…The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated. So, what’s happened? Afghan political leaders gave up and left the country.” pic.twitter.com/v3nnvXxRiI
August 16, 2021
Biden said he and his national security team were “clear-eyed about the risks” of leaving Afghanistan, and he argued that the events of the past week demonstrate how America’s continued military involvement could not have ultimately propped up the Afghan government.
The US president criticized Afghan government leaders for fleeing the country and Afghan troops for refusing to properly defend their country.
“The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated,” Biden said.
Updated
at 4.17pm EDT
4.05pm EDT
16:05
Biden acknowledges ‘rapid collapse’ in Afghanistan after Taliban takes Kabul
Joe Biden is now delivering an update on the situation in Afghanistan, a day after Taliban forces took control of Kabul.
The president said he and his national security team have been “closely monitoring” the situation on the ground in Afghanistan, even though Biden has not delivered on-camera remarks about the issue in several days.
Biden acknowledged that the world is now seeing a “rapid collapse” of the Afghan government, but he insisted the US mission in Afghanistan was “never supposed to be nation-building”.
4.01pm EDT
16:01
Reporters are now set up in the East Room of the White House, where Joe Biden will soon deliver remarks on the situation in Afghanistan, a day after Taliban forces entered Kabul.
Peter Alexander
(@PeterAlexander)
Inside the East Room, awaiting @POTUS’ remarks on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/vaEzJJPWkQ
August 16, 2021
3.55pm EDT
15:55
Joe Biden was scheduled to start his remarks on Afghanistan about ten minutes ago, but he appears to be running late — as he so often is.
Nikki Schwab
(@NikkiSchwab)
The pool hasn’t even been called yet, so President @JoeBiden’s remarks will not be happening on time.
August 16, 2021
3.40pm EDT
15:40
The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:
The office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a congresswoman from California, distributed a set of talking points to members of Congress on the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan. The talking points, obtained by the Guardian, are below. They were sent out around noon on Monday.
White House Talking Points on Afghanistan
TOPLINE:
The President was not willing to enter a third decade of conflict and surge in thousands of more troops to fight in a civil war that Afghanistan wouldn’t fight for themselves.
It’s clear from the past few weeks that would have been necessary – more troops for an indefinite amount of time.
The administration knew that there was a distinct possibility that Kabul would fall to the Taliban.
It was not an inevitability. It was a possibility.
POTUS said in July that the Afghan military had the capability to fight the Taliban. But they had to demonstrate the will. Sadly, that will did not materialize.
The administration planned for every possibility. We had contingency plans in place for any eventuality — including a quick fall of Kabul. That’s why we had troops pre-positioned in the region to deploy as they have done.
We are focused on safely evacuating US Embassy personnel, American citizens, SIV applicants and their families, and targeted Afghans. We have deployed 6000 US military to Afghanistan to secure the airport and ensure that those evacuation flights, as well as commercial and charter flights can safely depart.
But indefinite war was and is unacceptable to the President.
SIV Applicants
The administration has deployed 6000 US military to Afghanistan to secure the airport and ensure that evacuation flights, commercial and charter flights can safely depart.
Chairman Miley [sic] and Secretary Austin are working to restore order at the airport so those flights can take place.
Many have asked why we did not evacuate more Afghanistan civilians, sooner. Part of the answer is that many did not want to leave earlier: many Afghans to whom we gave visas to come to the US chose to stay in their country, still hopeful.
Nearly 2000 SIV applicants and their families are in the United States, and the administration is prepared to evacuate thousands of American citizens, SIV applicants, and targeted Afghans.
Was this an intelligence failure
The Administration knew that there was a distinct possibility that Kabul would fall to the Taliban.
It was not an inevitability. It was a possibility.
And the administration planned for every possibility. There were contingency plans in place for any eventuality — including a quick fall of Kabul. That’s why there were troops pre-positioned in the region to deploy as they have done.
The President said in July that the Afghan military had the capability to fight the Taliban. But they had to demonstrate the will. Tragically, that will did not materialize.
Here’s what the President was not willing to do: enter a third decade of conflict and surge in thousands of more troops to fight in a civil war that Afghanistan wouldn’t fight for themselves.
When Trump made the Doha agreement, there were 13,000 US troops in Afghanistan. When POTUS took office – Trump had drawn down troops to 2500. It’s clear from the past few weeks that would have been necessary.
The President was unwilling to send US men and women back to Afghanistan for an indefinite war.
Counter-Terrorism
The United States face terrorist threats in countries around the world including Syria, Libya and Yemen. We don’t have boots on the ground in those countries. We have over the horizon counter terrorism capabilities. And, that’s what we’ll do in Afghanistan – prevent, detect and disrupt terrorism threats with over the horizon capabilities.
And, we’ll hold the Taliban accountable to not allowing Al Qaeda a safe haven. if they do, there will be consequences that we’ll pursue.
Two points stand out. One is the emphasis put on the collapse of the Afghan government being a possibility, rather than an inevitability. The second is that the Biden administration is now focused on evacuating personnel, including American embassy staff and the special immigrant visa holders who helped American troops while in Afghanistan.
The talking points come as Democratic lawmakers emphasize throughout the day that American military forces must secure and retain control of the airport out of Kabul to evacuate people.
Updated
at 3.49pm EDT
3.22pm EDT
15:22
Maryland governor Larry Hogan said his state is already slated to welcome at least 180 Afghan citizens through the special immigrant visa program, and the Republican leader said he is “ready and willing” to receive more immigrants.
Governor Larry Hogan
(@GovLarryHogan)
Today, I am announcing Maryland’s commitment to receive more Afghan interpreters who have contributed to U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. Many of these Afghan citizens—our allies—bravely risked their lives to support our efforts, and we have a moral obligation to help them. pic.twitter.com/1B89nxz3Bi
August 16, 2021
“The chaotic and heartbreaking scenes out of Afghanistan over the last several days—with innocent civilians running for their lives in fear of the Taliban—is the result of a rushed and irresponsible withdrawal,” Hogan said in a video message.
“Many of these Afghan citizens—our allies—bravely risked their lives to provide invaluable support for many years to our efforts as interpreters and support staff, and we have a moral obligation to help them.”
Hogan encouraged anyone who is in need of assistance, or knows someone who is, to immediately contact the state’s Office of Refugees and Asylees.
“I ask all Marylanders to continue to pray for the safety of every American and all of our allies who remain in harm’s way,” Hogan said.
Updated
at 3.22pm EDT
2.59pm EDT
14:59
German Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that she and other global leaders had “misjudged” the Afghan government’s ability to withstand attacks from the Taliban.
“This is an extremely bitter development. Bitter, dramatic and terrifying,” the German chancellor said as the Taliban took control of Kabul, per DW News.
“It is a terrible development for the millions of Afghans who want a more liberal society.”
Merkel also noted that her misjudgment had been “widespread,” alluding to the incorrect calculations by other leaders, such as Joe Biden, about how long the Afghan government would be able to stand once US troops withdrew from the country.
DW News
(@dwnews)
“Bitter, dramatic and terrifying.”German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the international community was wrong in its assessment of the situation in Afghanistan, with terrible consequences. pic.twitter.com/LCi8KRCfsu
August 16, 2021 More
CaliforniaCalifornia’s governor recall election is heating up. Here’s what you need to knowWith mere weeks to go, Gavin Newsom and his opponents appeal to voters across America’s most populous state Maanvi Singh@ More
US politicsDemocrats’ divisions could still derail infrastructure bills Pelosi and Schumer pledging to follow two-track strategy to pass a $3.5tn reconciliation bill first Hugo Lowellin WashingtonSun 15 Aug 2021 05.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 15 Aug 2021 05.01 EDTJoe Biden’s economic vision has taken a major step toward becoming reality after the US Senate passed two infrastructure measures, but widening political divisions within the Democratic party could yet derail the entire legislative package.The Senate last week advanced a sprawling $3.5tn budget blueprint for “soft” infrastructure projects to tackle climate change and health care, a day after approving a $1tr bipartisan infrastructure bill to rebuild the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges.But even as Senate Democrats congratulated themselves on pushing through both measures, the fate of Biden’s economic priorities rests on House Democrats clearing several more looming hurdles as well as uniting the party’s left and right.The challenges facing the two infrastructure measures reflects the difficulty in trying to force bipartisan compromise in a deeply divided House and Senate where the Democrats possess only narrow majorities.Liberal Democrats who have bristled at seeing their top climate and social priorities jettisoned as Biden sought an elusive bipartisan compromise with moderate Senate Republicans may seek to change elements of the package, which could upend the delicate legislation.At a minimum, progressives have insisted the House delay considering the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Senate passes a far larger climate and health bill – something not expected until the fall, and against the hopes of centrist House Democrats.In order to deliver the president’s agenda, Democrats are pursuing a two-track approach that involves Congress passing both measures, starting with the $1tn bipartisan compromise that funnels $550bn of new money into traditional infrastructure projects.The second half of the strategy involves the House and Senate passing the climate and health bill, crafted on the basis of the $3.5tn budget blueprint, and passed using reconciliation, a fast-track process that allows Democrats to bypass a Republican filibuster – a procedural convention that can derail legislation.The Democrats’ plan is backstopped by an ironclad commitment from the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, that the House will not take up the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Senate first passes the reconciliation bill, which will take weeks to hammer out in the 50-50 Senate.The move by Pelosi is aimed at trying to balance the competing demands between progressives demanding maximum spending and more fiscally conservative centrists – all while ensuring that both measures are in the end enacted.When the speaker navigated through a similar two-track strategy to approve the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama in 2010, the bill passed notwithstanding the defections of three Democrats in the Senate and three dozen in the House.Pelosi now holds such a razor-thin majority in the House that she can afford only three Democratic defections to pass the bipartisan bill and the reconciliation bill if the votes are along party lines. Protest votes from either faction could sink the entire effort.But growing discontent about the legislation on both sides on Capitol Hill signals the prospect of an even more bitter and protracted intra-party fight over the future of the legislation in the coming weeks and months.The speaker on Wednesday reaffirmed her position to House Democrats during a closed-door caucus meeting that the Senate would have to first pass the $3.5tr reconciliation bill before the House would move to consider the bipartisan bill.“The votes in the House and Senate depend on us having both bills,” Pelosi told House Democrats, referencing the thin majorities in both chambers, according to a source familiar with the speaker’s remarks.That means the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, will need his committee chairs to finalize the language for the reconciliation bill and gain the approval of centrist Senate Democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin before the House can proceed.In an added complication, both Sinema and Manchin have sounded the alarm in recent days over the cost of the $3.5tr budget blueprint that will guide the reconciliation bill, though they joined their colleagues in voting to allow the framework to pass.The possibility that Democrats could get both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill has outraged Republicans, who have vowed to try to derail the $3.5tr package, which Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell likened to a “reckless tax-and-spending spree”.Challenges in the House also returned on Friday after a group of nine House Democratic moderates threatened in a letter to vote against the $3.5tn budget blueprint when the House returns the week of 23 August, if Pelosi didn’t pass the bipartisan bill first.The missive called on the speaker to abandon her two-track timetable so members vulnerable in 2022 could sell the bill to voters. “We will not consider voting for a budget resolution until the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passes the House and is signed into law,” the nine moderates wrote in a letter, which a House Democratic leadership aide described as “highly problematic”.Threats from moderates have infuriated progressive Democrats, who, emboldened by their successful effort to twist the Biden administration to introduce a new eviction moratorium, have repeatedly warned House Democratic leaders not to deviate from their original plan.In a letter to Pelosi on Tuesday, the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said a poll of their 96 members confirmed a majority would withhold their support for the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Senate passed the reconciliation bill.White House officials have said that they remain closely attuned to the growing tensions in the House and Senate. Pelosi and Biden speak regularly, and aides have started holding thrice-weekly conference calls, according to sources familiar with the matter.But top Democrats in Congress see no alternative to the path they are headed down and are hopeful that the two-track strategy will prove successful as in 2010. “I am very pleased to report that the two-track strategy is right on track,” Schumer said.TopicsUS politicsUS CongressInfrastructureDemocratsnewsReuse this content More
BooksThe Reckoning by Mary L Trump review – how to heal America’s traumaA revealing blend of family lore, history, policy and anger casts light on the background and legacy of Donald Trump Lloyd GreenSun 15 Aug 2021 01.00 EDTLast year, Mary Trump delivered a salacious and venomous takedown of her uncle, Donald J Trump. Too Much and Never Enough doubled as awesome beach reading and opposition research dump, before the party conventions. Timing was everything.Trump was ‘in pain and afraid’ during post-Covid display of bravado, niece’s book saysRead moreGoosed by the Trump family’s attempt to stop publication and by simple proximity to election day, the book sold more than 1.35m copies in in its first week. Mary Trump then launched a lawsuit of her own against her uncle and his siblings, alleging they swindled her out of millions. The action remains pending, in court in Manhattan.Too Much and Never Enough had a subtitle: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. A year later, it seems a flashing red light. On 6 January, when Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the US Capitol, literary hyperbole acquired prescience.Now the Trump who doesn’t need a ghostwriter – and who is also a trained psychologist – is back with a second book, The Reckoning. It is a less lurid read but a darker one too. Under a slightly less alarming subtitle, Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal, she delivers a bleak prognosis.The book is a mixture of family lore, history, policy and anger. As expected, Mary Trump’s disdain for her uncle is once again made clear. At her grandparents’ home, the N-word was bandied about. Her uncle, she says, grew up racist and antisemitic. If you’re wondering how such a man might have come to conquer a political party and win the White House, think on this: Steve Bannon, Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016, has discounted antisemitism in his boss – but declined to deny Trump’s race-baiting.Then there is the bravado Trump showed last October, after contracting Covid-19. “Doing his best Mussolini imitation, he took off his mask in a macho display of invulnerability,” Mary Trump writes, of the moment the then president returned to the White House from hospital, supposedly indestructible. “He clenched his teeth and jutted out his jaw, just as my grandmother did when she was biting back anger or clamping down on her pain. In Donald, I saw the latter.”Mary Trump is happy to wade into policy fights. Her diagnoses of America’s ills and policy prescriptions to tackle them place her squarely on the left. It is “almost impossible to grow up white in America”, she writes, “and not be racist”. Perhaps she is too pessimistic. Yes, many of the founders owned enslaved people. Yes, it took one century to end slavery and another to end official segregation. Yes, the effects linger. Inequality is baked in. Like a ghost, the past will always hover.But the US has undeniably progressed from where it stood 75 years ago, let alone 100 further back. Barack Obama won two terms as president. Kamala Harris is vice-president. Even in the Republican party, South Carolina, for so long a hotbed of sedition and segregation, racism and repression, is represented in the Senate by an African American, Tim Scott.Wading into stormy intellectual waters, Mary Trump embraces the 1619 Project, a proposal to center racism in American history, published by the New York Times. She does admit one of the project’s original claims, that the revolutionary war was fought to preserve slavery, was “a factual inaccuracy”. In doing so she joins leading historians including Sean Wilentz and James McPherson of Princeton as critics of the project.Mary Trump is also in favor of financial reparations to Black Americans in compensation for centuries of oppression, and a vocal opponent of “broken windows” policing. Under that theory, minor disorder is cracked down upon harshly, supposedly as a way of stopping more serious crime at source but disproportionately affecting minority communities.Looking at the impact of the policy on her own city, New York, Mary Trump goes full bore at Rudy Giuliani, once mayor, and Bill Bratton, Giuliani’s first police commissioner. She contends that the impact of “broken windows” policing was minimal at best, and that a reduction in crime in the 1990s was merely part of a larger “national trend”. Loathe Giuliani all you want but he deserves credit. His New York drove that trend.She continues: “In our cities and our schools, we all would have been better off if they’d just fixed the fucking windows.” Unfortunately, Bill de Blasio, the current mayor, can’t even be bothered with that. Parts of Fun City are not terribly fun.Mary Trump puts her positions passionately but perhaps she could pause to consider how such agendas play with voters. Even under the horrors of Covid, Joe Biden was the only Democrat who could have beaten her uncle. James Clyburn, dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, has acknowledged that one slogan popular on the left, Defund the Police, nearly cost control of the House.Ohio Democratic primary election: Shontel Brown defeats progressive Nina TurnerRead moreMore recently, in Ohio, Shontel Brown won a House primary against Nina Turner – a harsh critic of Biden. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, leading national progressive voices, were in Turner’s corner. Clyburn had Brown’s back. At the ballot box, moderation matters. So do coalitions.According to Mary Trump, “we are heading toward an even darker period in our nation’s history”. This week, Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate judiciary committee, made light of her uncle’s attempts to have the Department of Justice subvert the election result. There is reason for more than just concern. The past five years, the age of Donald Trump, have cast a harsh spotlight on America.Each of us will see what we will see. Our cold civil war continues. With her second book, Mary Trump offers food for thought – and grist for the mill.
The Reckoning is published in the US by St Martin’s Press ($28.99) and in the UK by Atlantic (£18.99). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
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