CNN anchor Chris Cuomo partially blamed former President Donald Trump as President Joe Biden is dealing with the still-unfolding situation in Afghanistan.
Cuomo pushed back Thursday on those who were critical of Biden, saying that while the president had not “played his cards right,” they were “bad cards” that he had gotten from Trump. (RELATED: Why Hasn’t Chris Cuomo Resigned From CNN? The Answer Is Simple)
WATCH:
Cuomo began by recognizing the American troops — 12 Marines and one Navy corpsman — who were killed in Thursday morning’s ISIS-K-claimed suicide bombings.
“Not since a chopper crash in 2011 have we seen death on this scale of our own. Thirteen dead, 18 others injured, some very badly. Sixty Afghans may have been killed. More than 100 Afghans injured as well,” Cuomo said.
He went on to push back on the White House’s claim that the chaos in Afghanistan — following troop withdrawal and the Taliban takeover — was “inevitable.”
“No, what happened today was not inevitable. The chaos was not inevitable. This did not have to go this way and only this way,” Cuomo continued. “For instance, why were we using soldiers, Marines, to form a human barrier at this gate? This clearly was not a smart move. Will it be changed now?”
“And if you want to assess this in terms of blame, there is plenty to go around. Biden has not played his hand well, but he got the cards from Trump,” Cuomo said, shifting the blame from Biden to Trump. “And they were bad cards. It was a bad hand. So enough with the blame game. None of you have high ground. The idea that if the other is worse, you are first has to end because it makes nothing better.”
Cuomo went on to argue that slinging blame does nothing to improve the situation, saying that people should be working to find better solutions instead of continuing to point fingers.
“According to the president, their leadership should expect our response,” Cuomo concluded, asking whether that would even register with the terror groups responsible for the attack. “Will the threat of being bombed wherever they’re from in Khorasan stop more suicide bombings? These are people who are willing to die to send a message.”