WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden is set to address the nation Monday afternoon about the chaos ensuing in Afghanistan.
Biden is scheduled to return to the White House from Camp David and deliver his remarks at 3:45 p.m. ET in the East Room.
The Taliban has nearly taken over all of Afghanistan as the U.S. continues to withdraw from the Middle Eastern country.
The Biden administration and other top U.S. officials have said they didn’t anticipate Afghanistan’s cities to fall to the Taliban as quickly as they did as American troops left the country.
The U.S. has deployed thousands of troops to the country to assist with evacuating U.S. and allied personnel, as well as Afghans who have helped America and those at special risk from the Taliban advance.
Stunning video continues to come out of Afghanistan, showing crowds of people desperate to flee the country. At Kabul’s international airport, thousands of Afghans were seen rushing onto the tarmac and some clung to an American military jet as it took off and plunged to their death. U.S. officials have confirmed that at least seven people died in that chaos.
Although Biden is facing criticism for the way the U.S. has withdrawn from Afghanistan, the president is standing by his decision to end the nation’s longest war.
In a statement released over the weekend, Biden said he inherited a deal cut by former President Donald Trump, which left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021, deadline on U.S. forces.
“Therefore, when I became President, I faced a choice—follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our forces and our allies’ forces out safely, or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country’s civil conflict. I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth,” wrote Biden.
