Jake Tapper was doing what Jake Tapper does, criticizing every single thing about the way President Biden has handled the Afghanistan withdrawal -- and why that led to the airport attack in Kabul. He brought on former CIA counterterrorism deputy Phil Mudd to discuss the day's event.
"Phil, you have been saying now for some time that this withdrawal was going to be ugly and violent no matter when it happened," Tapper said.
Mudd agreed.
"If you look at the characteristics, whether you're President Obama or whether you're President Trump -- and I'm seeing among my friends on Twitter already today, critiques of what's happening.
"Let's look at characteristics. The Americans say they are going to get out. Could you have bombed American sort of military posts before you got out to ensure that the Taliban couldn't access weapons and explosives? The Taliban then knows you're leaving. The Taliban going to surge if they see that you're leaving. That happened in this circumstance. The Afghan national army is going to see you're leaving. They are going to fold. As soon as you start leaving the airport. American citizens and people sited with the Americans are going to surge the airport because they know their throats are going to get slit by the Taliban.
"That's what happening in this circumstance and the biggest question, Jake, you're gonna have to surge in the American military to get aircraft to take people out and there's a big footprint and a big risk. You tell me -- whether you like Obama or Trump or Biden, you give me a better plan, I don't see it, Jake."
There you go.
