John Kirby, head of Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, was confronted by Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday with the Department of Defense's admission that China is taking advantage of the United States' disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan last year.
Millions of dollars of U.S.-supplied equipment and hundreds of Americans were left behind during the chaotic evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport. The situation was made worse when an ISIS-K bomber attacked an airport gate, killing 13 U.S. service members and hundreds of Afghans. President Joe Biden had promised earlier in the year the evacuation and withdrawal would not be hasty and done in an orderly fashion.
"The way you withdrew is the issue, Admiral. The way our military moved in and out is a separate issue. Your Defense Department’s claimed as part of its annual report to Congress on national security developments, they suggest that China capitalized on the withdrawal to convince world leaders the U.S. is not a reliable ally," Kilmeade told Kirby.
"The PRC employed multiple diplomatic tools in attempt to erode U.S. and partner influence. And it highlights the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The death of 13 and how many people we got out that’s one issue," he continued. "And you could argue that Russia invaded Ukraine because of it."
"Brian, so the report said that China attempted to capitalize on it. That’s a big difference from saying that they did or were able to capitalize on this. I mean, they spread propaganda about everything," Kirby replied. "We have admitted and acknowledged that not everything about the withdrawal was done perfectly. That there were certainly mistakes made. We have investigated those mistakes. We have observed up for those mistakes."
"The President has not been taking a briefing I know this for a fact. They had a report put together about what went wrong in Afghanistan. The president wouldn’t even take an oral brief on it," Kilmeade pushed back.