At a news conference this week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went through difficult political maneuvering as he criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis — while carefully avoiding criticism of former President Donald Trump and glossing over the fact that Biden was essentially following the Trump/Mike Pompeo plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from the middle eastern country.
But as McCarthy tries to have it both ways —attacking Biden as weak on national defense while defending Trump’s failures in Afghanistan— reporters are pointing out how badly he is contradicting himself.
“Why would you negotiate with the Taliban?” McCarthy contemptuously told reporters during the news briefing. But negotiating with the Taliban is exactly what Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did in 2020. Pompeo met with Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and Trump even talked about bringing the Taliban to Camp David.
One reporter pointed out that Trump did something McCarthy is now criticizing Biden’s administration for: Trump negotiated with the Taliban.
Watch the exchange in the video below.
"You said 'you shouldn't be negotiating with the Taliban.' Trump did that too, to be clear. So, I mean, was it wrong when he did it?" pic.twitter.com/rP7MNWVQFX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 27, 2021
