White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby wrote Wednesday that there is “no use responding” to a “handful of vets” involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle.
Fox News obtained an email sent with that message by Kirby on the anniversary of 9/11 as a “reply all” likely meant for his staffers.
“Clearly, I didn’t realize you were on the chain,” Kirby said about his initial email, Fox reported.
The high-profile spokesman sent the email about not responding to some military veterans to address questions from Fox News about Kirby’s providing cover for the Biden-Harris administration on its hurried departure from Afghanistan in August 2021.
That departure, which descended into chaos as U.S. troops left the country, left 13 Americans dead while the Taliban took over Afghanistan and gained more control than the militant Islamist movement had before the 9/11 attacks that originated there.
Kirby took heat from many who called his attitude “callous,” among other things.
“Horrifying. Callous. Disgraceful,” wrote Republican National Committee communications manager Steve Guest.
Fox News contributor and media critic Joe Concha wrote that the media should call on Kirby to “resign in shame.”
“Kirby is a bad guy and is also just plain bad at his job,” investigative journalist Jerry Dunleavy wrote.
“This is the attitude taken by a White House that utterly botched our withdrawal from a key geostrategic hotspot,” the New York Post’s editorial board wrote. “By a cadre of political careerists who let Afghanistan fall to a bloodthirsty terrorist enemy and saw 13 service members killed in a terrorist attack on Kabul airport.”
The Post also wrote that Kirby and the Biden-Harris administration might be rattled by a recent congressional report.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee, which has investigated the Biden-Harris administration’s Afghanistan exit, released a report last week detailing how the administration didn’t have a solid plan to leave despite clear warnings that the situation could get out of hand.
“Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government, so we could safely evacuate U.S. personnel, American citizens, green card holders, and our brave Afghan allies,” Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a public statement.
The report by McCaul’s committee highlighted ample warning signs before a deadly terrorist attack took place at the airport’s Abbey Gate that killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghan civilians.
“The Biden-Harris administration misled and, in some instances, directly lied to the American people at every stage of the withdrawal, from before the go-to-zero order until today,” the committee report says.
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
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