A former CIA analyst sharply criticized President Joe Biden for his address regarding the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, while also taking a swipe at journalists who praised the speech.
Matt Zeller, also a U.S. Army veteran and the co-founder of the non-profit “No One Left Behind,” appeared on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” with Brian Williams on Monday following the president’s speech to offer his analysis. Biden had recently finished the speech to the American people, in which he defended his decision to withdraw troops from the country as the Taliban made a sweeping offensive through Afghanistan.
U.S. Army veteran Matt Zeller goes off on MSNBC about Biden’s remarks on Afghanistan:
Zeller: “I feel like I watched a different speech than the rest of you guys. I was appalled.” pic.twitter.com/eGC5tMBvy4
— Whitney Robertson (@whitneyleerob) August 16, 2021
“I hope he gets to own their deaths, too,” Zeller responded to Williams after the host said that the president “owned” his responsibility for the withdrawal. Zeller then briefly called out Williams and other hosts at MSNBC for their praise of the speech, stating that he felt he had “watched a different speech than the rest of [them]” and that he was “appalled.”
“There was such a profound bold-faced lie in that speech,” Zeller continued. “The idea we planned for every contingency.” The former CIA analyst said that the administration “never planned” for an evacuation of their allies and that they were more concerned with the “optics of a chaotic evacuation.” (RELATED: Support For Afghanistan Withdrawal Tanks After Botched Exit, Poll Shows)
“We should be retaking every single airfield that we just gave up… These are our people, we made these people a promise, the Taliban are now actively killing them, and if we don’t take them, they’re gonna die” – Matt Zeller w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/hmkiwiyeIw
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) August 16, 2021
“They got exactly what they were most concerned of by failing to do what was right when we could have done it,” Zeller continued, adding that the U.S. had all the equipment to “save these people months ago.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended the president, saying that he was “to be commended for the actions he has taken” as the Taliban entered Kabul over the weekend. Meanwhile, Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton has pointed out that several Americans were trapped behind Taliban checkpoints during the offensive, with no way of reaching the U.S. checkpoint at the time.