‘A pretty consistent assessment’: Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, now retired, insisted he wasn’t making big news Tuesday when he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that just about everyone among the senior leadership at the Pentagon recommended President Joe Biden leave at least 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan
Biden in 2021: ‘no one said that to me that I can recall’: In that Aug. 18, 2021, ABC interview, Stephanopoulos grilled Biden repeatedly about whether he was acting against the advice of his top military commanders. Here’s part of the exchange:
Stephanopoulos: Your top military advisers warned against withdrawing on this timeline. They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops.
Biden: No, they didn’t. It was split. That wasn’t true. That wasn’t true.
Stephanopoulos: They didn’t tell you that they wanted troops to stay?
Biden: No. Not at — not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a time frame all troops. They didn’t argue against that.
Stephanopoulos: So no one told — your military advisers did not tell you, “No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It’s been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that”?
Biden: No. No one said that to me that I can recall.