Evan Vucci/AP
- White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended President Joe Biden from criticism by a top ally.
- Former Obama advisor David Axelrod called Biden's handling of the Afghanistan exit "a disaster."
- Psaki argued that Biden had to make "difficult choices" while Axelrod aired his opinions on TV.
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended President Joe Biden from criticism by a top ally, former top Obama advisor David Axelrod, over the White House's messaging on its controversial withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Axelrod, a friend and former colleague of Psaki's who's praised the press secretary's work under Biden, called the administration's handling of the Afghanistan exit "a disaster" and a "failure" on Monday. He urged Biden to take responsibility for misjudging the situation on the ground. When a reporter asked her to respond to Axelrod's criticism during a Tuesday press briefing, Psaki largely dismissed the critique and argued that Biden had to make "difficult choices" while Axelrod aired his opinions on TV.
"There are few people I respect as much as David Axelrod in the world of politics, he's brilliant and he's also a great human being," Psaki said. "But he would be the first to say that there is a difference between being on the outside and speaking on television and being on the inside and the difficult choices that you have to make."
Axelrod responded to that comment by tweeting, "Correct."
Psaki conceded that there had been "chaotic moments" during the withdrawal and called images and footage of desperate Afghans rushing the tarmac at the Kabul airport in an attempt to escape their home country "heart-wrenching." But she insisted that Biden stands behind his decisions and wouldn't at this point accept blame for the widely criticized manner in which the US ended its occupation.
Axelrod called those same images, and the reports of thousands of American and Afghan allies stranded in a newly-Taliban controlled Kabul, a "nightmare scenario."
"You cannot defend the execution here. This has been a disaster," Axelrod said on CNN on Monday. "It is heartbreaking, it is depressing, and it's a failure. And he needs to own that failure. He's the commander in chief."
-David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) August 17, 2021
After Biden's White House speech on Monday, Axelrod criticized the president for failing to take the blame for the US government's misjudgment of how quickly and precipitously the Afghan government would fall to the Taliban.
".@POTUS made a compelling case for WHY we are leaving Afghanistan that will resonate with many," he tweeted. "He didn't do as well taking responsibility for HOW we got out, and the obvious failure to anticipate events."
-Acyn (@Acyn) August 17, 2021