Fox News co-host Kayleigh McEnany parroted the GOP’s recent attempt to memory hole the Trump administration’s role in the destabilizing collapse of Afghanistan, loudly declaring on Monday that the Taliban quickly seizing control of the Afghan capital of Kabul “would have never happened” under President Donald Trump.
Since the Taliban’s sweeping takeover of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American troops—which has resulted in the chaotic evacuation of American diplomats and Afghan refugees—a number of former Trump officials (including Trump himself) have sought to lay all of the blame solely at the Biden administration’s feet.
The chastising and finger-pointing has taken place despite the fact that it was the Trump administration that negotiated the “historic” peace agreement with the Taliban that called for the total withdrawal of American troops by May 1. (The Biden administration actually extended the withdrawal until the end of August.)
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Furthermore, Team Trump also agreed to the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, many of whom immediately rejoined the fight. The former president also negotiated the release of Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar from a Pakistan prison three years ago, believing Baradar could help broker peace with the Taliban. Baradar, who posed in pictures with ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just nine months ago, is now poised to be the new leader of Afghanistan.
During Monday’s broadcast of Fox News’ midday panel show Outnumbered, however, McEnany and Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner both suggested that the situation in Afghanistan would be far different if Trump was still in office.
“Kayleigh, this is not how the last president left the situation,” Faulkner said, adding: “It would have been nice to get all our people back quickly. Instead, this is protracted.”
“Let me be categorical in saying this,” McEnany, formerly Trump’s White House press secretary, replied. “This would have never happened under President Donald J. Trump! It would not have!”
After citing the Trump administration’s military responses in Iran and Syria as reasons why she believes the Taliban—who endorsed Trump for re-election because they felt he would quickly withdraw troops—would have “respected our commander-in-chief,” she claimed we “do not have a commander-in-chief right now.”
Faulkner, meanwhile, noted that President Joe Biden was scheduled to speak to the public about the situation in Afghanistan later in the afternoon, wondering aloud if that changed McEnany’s view at all.
“No! Too little, too late,” McEnany exclaimed.
McEnany’s alternative history lesson on Afghanistan comes as the Republican Party itself just recently scrubbed a webpage that praised Trump for reaching a “historic peace agreement with the Taliban.” The statement also boasted that while Trump has “championed peace,” then-presidential candidate Biden had pushed “endless wars.” The page also claimed the former president had “taken action to defeat ISIS and eliminate dangerous leaders.”
