A number of high-profile Republican lawmakers who previously praised President Joe Biden’s plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan quickly changed their tunes as Taliban forces conquered Kabul and large swathes of the country in recent days.
Most prominent was former President Donald Trump. In April, the 45th president called Biden’s plan to withdraw a “wonderful and positive thing to do” but insisted that Biden’s original deadline of Sept. 11 be moved up to earlier in 2021.
While still in office, Trump had set May 1 as a final Afghanistan withdrawal date, in addition to criticizing the United States’s presence in Afghanistan dating back to 2012, and he argued in a statement this past April that Biden’s timeline was “way too long.”
BIDEN: ‘I STAND SQUARELY BY MY DECISION’ ON AFGHANISTAN
“We can and should get out earlier. Nineteen years is enough, in fact, far too much and way too long,” he said in a statement at the time. “I made early withdraw possible by already pulling much of our billions of dollars of equipment out and, more importantly, reducing our military presence to less than 2,000 troops from the 16,000 level that was there.”
Yet, on Monday, Trump put out three new statements directly attacking Biden’s handling of the situation.
“He surrendered to the Taliban, who has quickly overtaken Afghanistan and destroyed confidence in American power and influence,” he wrote in the first. “The outcome in Afghanistan, including the withdrawal, would have been totally different if the Trump Administration had been in charge. Who or what will Joe Biden surrender to next? Someone should ask him, if they can find him.”
The second statement appeared to highlight the Biden administration’s rate of evacuating Afghan citizens who assisted U.S. forces in the 20-year-long war.
“Can anyone even imagine taking out our Military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our Country and who should be allowed to seek refuge? In addition, these people left topflight and highly sophisticated equipment,” Trump wrote. “Who can believe such incompetence? Under my Administration, all civilians and equipment would have been removed.”
The final statement outright declared Afghanistan “the most embarrassing military outcome in the history of the United States,” adding that “it didn’t have to be that way.”
Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz both also supported Biden’s original withdrawal timeline but issued scathingly critical attacks against the administration over the past week.
In July, Pompeo told the Associated Press that he applauded Biden’s decision to continue with Trump’s plan to withdraw despite pushing back the timeline and said he was “confident” in the current administration’s past assessments that the Afghan Security Forces and citizens would “fight” to prevent a full Taliban takeover.
However, in an op-ed written over the weekend, Pompeo argued that the current situation in Afghanistan “is a result of poor planning and poor leadership in attempting to execute an operation that had been set up for success by the Trump administration.”
Similarly, Cruz responded in April to Biden’s original announcement by stating he is “glad the troops are coming home” and that “it should not be the job of the U.S. military to engage in nation building,” but on Monday, he called the withdrawal “an incoherent & precipitous abandonment.”
These WH talking points try to pin blame on everyone except Biden, even the Afghan military.
But it was Biden who ordered an incoherent & precipitous abandonment.
And it was Biden, along with his hand-picked team, who misled Americans for weeks about the unfolding catastrophe. https://t.co/MfYpZ7adzv
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 16, 2021
A number of other Republicans, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis, and former Secretary of State James Baker III, all also praised Biden’s plan but have yet to voice criticism amid Taliban advances.
“It’s great when we can find places to agree,” Paul said on Twitter in April. “I’m grateful President Biden is keeping President Trump’s plan to leave Afghanistan, even with a delay until fall. The time to bring our troops home is now or as soon as possible. Enough endless wars.”
Lummis also tweeted in April that she wished “the Biden Administration had kept to President Trump’s May 1 deadline, but I am pleased our troops are coming home” and looks “forward to working with the current Administration to continue our intelligence gathering efforts and preventing terrorists from using Afghanistan as a home base.”
Baker served in the Cabinets of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and though he supported the initial invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he endorsed Biden’s decision this past April.
“I admire the fact that President Biden had the courage to end up and say we’re going to get out of Afghanistan,” he said at the time. “It’s time to do that.”
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An even larger number of Republicans fully supported Trump’s May 1 withdrawal deadline, including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Florida Reps. Gus Bilirakis and Matt Gaetz, and Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, the chairman of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus.
