Biden Defends Afghanistan Withdrawal

President Biden defended the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, saying that 90% of Americans in the country who wanted to leave were able to depart.

Mr. Biden addressed the nation from the White House Tuesday, a day after the final plane carrying American troops departed Afghanistan, formally marking the end of the nation’s longest war. The president said his administration would continue to work to help remaining Americans exit the country and pushed back against criticism of the withdrawal.

“Leaving Aug. 31 is not due to an arbitrary deadline,” Mr. Biden said. “It was designed to save American lives.”

After campaigning on completing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Mr. Biden and top administration officials have been confronted by images of chaos as Afghans seek to flee the country and the deaths of 13 service members and dozens of Afghans in a terrorist attack attributed to ISIS-K at the Kabul airport.

Republicans were divided on continuing the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, but many say the administration’s handling of the withdrawal undermines the president’s promise to provide competent leadership and serve as a steady hand on foreign policy.

“ Joe Biden had exactly one advantage on foreign policy and that was a promise of stability and predictability. This looked neither stable nor predictable nor strong,” said Brad Todd, a Republican strategist advising Senate candidates in battleground states next year.

New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, said voters from both parties supported leaving Afghanistan and would understand the difficulty for Mr. Biden in going through with the withdrawal.