CBS on Friday finally discovered the bombshell Wall Street Journal scoop that the Biden administration was warned by the U.S. embassy of impending chaos if he didn’t change course. Yet CBS This Morning allowed just a scant 50 seconds on the disturbing development. Still, at least the network covered it. NBC on Thursday night and Friday morning is still hiding the revelations.
Co-host Anthony Mason quickly noted, “There's new evidence that the Biden administration received a stark warning about the Taliban's imminent takeover. The Wall Street Journal reports a State Department memo told Secretary of State Tony Blinken last month that the Afghan government could collapse after the troop withdrawal scheduled to end on August 31st.”
He added:
It urged the Department to start pulling Americans out of the country before the troops were gone. The Biden administration now says it's focused on getting every American and Afghans who assisted the U.S. out of the country. The president's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told Norah O’Donnell yesterday that the administration does not know how many Americans are still in Afghanistan.
The NBC Nightly News on Thursday avoided the damaging revelation and so did NBC’s Today on Friday. That morning show allowed a scant 3 minutes and 26 seconds to Afghanistan in general before moving on.
On Friday’s Good Morning America, Stephanie Ramos didn’t specifically cite The Wall Street Journal, but she did dismiss the Biden claims of ignorance:
But a source tells ABC American officials at the embassy in Kabul did warn that Afghanistan was on the brink, warning the administration in a mid-July message of the Taliban's swift advance and that Kabul could fall shortly after the end of August, the deadline the White House said for the draw down.
CBS devoting a scant 51 seconds to this new bombshell was sponsored by Ensure and Liberty Mutual. Click on the links to let them know what you think.
A transcript of the segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CBS This Morning
8/20/2021
7:08:48 to 7:09:39
ANTHONY MASON: There's new evidence that the Biden administration received a stark warning about the Taliban's imminent takeover. The Wall Street Journal reports a State Department memo told Secretary of State Tony Blinken last month that the Afghan government could collapse after the troop withdrawal scheduled to end on August 31st. The paper says the classified cable dated July 13th came from a group of diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Kabul.
It urged the department to start pulling Americans out of the country before the troops were gone. The Biden administration now says it's focused on getting every American and Afghans who assisted the U.S. out of the country. The president's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told Norah O’Donnell yesterday that the administration does not know how many Americans are still in Afghanistan.
