Pence: Biden's 'Weak' Foreign Policy, Announced Withdrawal Gave Taliban a Green Light
Last week, former US Vice President Mike Pence penned an op-ed decrying the "foreign policy humiliation" the country will endure following the US military's "disastrous withdrawal" from Afghanistan. Slamming Biden as disgraceful and "weak," Pence argued the Taliban seized Kabul because "they knew there was no credible threat of force" from the US.
Pence's critique of the US commander-in-chief continued on Tuesday as he proclaimed that the ongoing withdrawal from Afghanistan is "a foreign policy humiliation, unlike anything our country has endured since the Iran hostage crisis."
Though the Biden and Trump administrations were in agreement about leaving Afghanistan, their respective handling of the situation was not, according to the former vice president.
"The difference was strength," Pence said during an appearance on the "Brian Kilmeade Show."
He went on to assert that "you would have not seen the Taliban march into Kabul" if former US President Donald Trump was still in the White House.
Pence claimed the Biden administration's initial announcement of the US military's withdrawal by September 11 was the event that set the entire Afghan "disaster" in motion.
While the new target date was already four months past the initial May 1 deadline, it also appeared as if it was selected by the Biden administration in commemoration of the September 11 terror attacks, rather than the security situation in Afghanistan.
"We all want our troops to come home but not like that," Pence said.
He detailed that the Trump and Biden administrations' approach to handling the withdrawal was "diametrically" different because 45's negotiations with the group took place not long after the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force.
The former vice president argued that the killing gave credence to any negotiation-era threats made by the Trump administration.
"What you're seeing in the Biden administration I think is just an effort to shift the conversation and shift the blame from just an unspeakably poor effort to withdraw troops from Afghanistan," Pence said.
Pence's admonishment of Biden came just hours before the commander-in-chief confirmed that the US is committed, and on track to reach the August 31 withdrawal deadline established by the Taliban.