Key Points
- President Biden spoke to Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani weeks before the fall of Kabul.
- Biden asked Ghani to change the “perception” that the Taliban was making huge gains.
- Biden promised we will “continue to fight hard.”
According to phone logs from July 23rd, just four weeks before the chaos in Kabul, President Joe Biden spoke with then-Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani about changing the perspective that the Taliban were making large gains in the country. Biden asked Ghani to spin a new narrative.
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden said, according to call transcripts obtained by Reuters. “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”
Biden also pressed Ghani, and former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, to hold a joint press conference to ease concerns that the Taliban has already taken half of the country.
“That will change perception, and that will change an awful lot, I think,” Biden said.
“I’m not a military guy, so I’m not telling you what that plan should precisely look like, you’re going to get not only more help, but you’re going to get a perception that is going to change in terms of how , um … our allies and folks here in the States and other places think you’re doing,” Biden added.
“More help” never really materialized. Biden accelerated the withdrawal after threats from the Taliban promised “consequences” for missing the August 31st deadline.
“We are going to continue to fight hard, diplomatically, politically, economically, to make sure your government not only survives, but is sustained and grows because it is clearly in the interest of the people of Afghanistan that you succeed and you lead.”
President Ghani fled Afghanistan for the United Arab Emirates on August 15th. Biden withdrew military support, stranding hundreds of U.S. citizens, on August 31st.
The White House has yet to comment on the 14-minute phone call, in which the U.S. President asked a foreign leader to lie about an international, humanitarian crisis.
[h/t New York Post]
