Tipsheet

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace: '95 percent of Americans Will Agree' with Biden's Afghanistan Remarks

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said Monday that the overwhelming majority of Americans would approve of President Joe Biden's speech on the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan while the Washington, D.C. media will likely oppose.

"Ninety-five percent of the American people will agree with everything he just said," Wallace said following Biden's speech. "Ninety-five percent of the press covering this White House will disagree." 

"He also went a long way toward really fleshing out a Biden doctrine," she continued. "And there are questions about whether he can achieve what he set out. But there is no equivocation, there is no lack of confidence that this is the right decision. And what he has going for him is a vast majority of Americans in both political parties."

The MSBC host also applauded the president's "firm resolve" while blaming former President Donald Trump for the crisis in Afghanistan, saying that "he was dealt an unwinnable hand by his predecessor." During his speech Monday, Biden also blamed Trump for the Taliban takeover.

"For an American president to finally be aligned with what such an overwhelming majority of Americans think about Afghanistan is probably a tremendous relief to the American people," Wallace said.

Wallace's claim that 95 percent of people back Biden's speech contradicts a Monday poll from Morning Consult/Politico that found 49 percent of American voters are in favor of pulling troops from Afghanistan while 69 percent supported the withdrawal back in April. 

A separate poll from Trafalgar Group and Convention of States Action also shows that Biden's handling of the situation in Afghanistan is not favorable, with nearly 70 percent of Americans saying they disapprove of how the president is managing military operations in the region. 

Biden said during his speech Monday that he stands by his decision to pull troops from Afghanistan but that the situation "did unfold more quickly than we anticipated."

The president also attributed blame for the Taliban takeover to leaders of Afghanistan, saying that "It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not."